Ethan Frome Research Paper

Ethan and Zeena’s marriage seemed a bit peculiar from the beginning of the novel, I am still trying to figure out how they connected in the first place. I saw Ethan as a hard working husband, who wanted to take care of his sick wife even though it was so difficult, financially and emotionally. As I read on, I realized, the same hard working man, was actually both weak and strong. I believe so because Ethan lacked the power of authority over his marriage, he had no control over his house, or his finances and getting involved with another woman somehow made him feel better, she gave him a bit of strength he didn’t think he had.

Why were women considered weak and dependent? Gender roles in the nineteenth century were very different than they are now; women were very sheltered and restricted while men did all the outside work and roamed free. This theory was conveyed in many articles, stories, and documentaries found previously. As a nineteenth century wife, a list of particular characteristics and ideas were formed in order to consider one as a quality wife. In the short story, “The Birthmark,” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Georgiana succeeded as a wife during the nineteenth century according to these unfair gender roles.

Divorce is such a personal and common thing in America. There are so many couples who go through the act of divorce every day. According to Kanewicher and Harris (2014), forty to fifty percent of couples will end in divorce within the first few years of marriage. Divorce is the legal dissolution of a marriage by a court or other competent body. There are many factors that may lead couples into divorce. Some of those factors are, marrying too young, low education levels and overall just lack of preparation (Kanewischer, 2015). Although divorce is common now, it was not like this back in the late 1900’s. Divorce was not allowed and most of the time people did not want to get divorce because of all the time and effort they put into their marriage.

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

In recent years, there have been many cases of the rich “getting away with murder.” One example that I absolutely love is, Ethan Couch.All at the age of 16, Ethan Couch was driving under the influence of stolen beer cases. When he killed 4 people and injured 9 people all together. Couch was then indicted with 4 charges of intoxicated manslaughter, but the judge only gave him 10 years of probation. Since it was argued that he had “affluenza.” Affluenza’s dictionary definition is “a psychological malaise supposedly affecting wealthy young people, symptoms of which include a lack of motivation, feelings of guilt, and a sense of isolation.” This basically gave him a get out jail free card, since his parents were too rich to teach him to be a

Eobard Thawne (c. 2151 - May 19, 2015),[1] also known as "Reverse-Flash", was a meta-human from the future and an enemy of Barry Allen/The Flash. After learning the Flash's identity, he traveled into the past to kill Barry as a child but was intercepted when the Flash carried Barry's younger self away to safety while an angry Reverse-Flash killed Nora Allen. When he tried to flee back to his time, however, Eobard lost his super-speed, becoming stranded in the 21st century. Impersonating Harrison Wells, he forged a life for himself as the director of S.T.A.R. Labs and pushed through for the creation of a particle accelerator to ensure that Barry Allen would become the Flash and teach to increase the Flash's speed so that Eobard could return

easier for a man to divorce a woman, then women asking for divorce. There new reform created

Certain laws even made it nearly impossible for women to divorce their husbands. This being the case, most women were completely financially dependent upon men.

Men, in the 19th century did not have respect for women. After the marriage, the women was consider as a "toy" and as an "animal" to men. "Essentially, the wife "belonged" to her husband. He had a right to the person and prosperity of his wife; he could use gentle restraint upon her liberty to prevent improper conduct, he could beat her without fear of persecution. Thus, it was very clear that the wife is dead in law"-Barbara Welter, The American Woman. Women had to suffer all this treatment because it was their choice. They would get marry and be financially secured or they would be single and support themselves. Most of them choose the first choice because; working was worse then some

In earlier cultures, women’s job was to bear children, cook, clean, and to be submissive to their husband. A man’s job was to work, take care of the farm, and was to be the dominant individual in the marriage. With both the husband and wife doing their daily duties, the household would go smoothly. However, certain men in the 19th century began to degrade women. Making women feel worthless and unimportant. “Wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants” (The British Library).

With these types of oppression of women in mind, Mill wanted to create equal rights for women and men because if there were equal rights, it would benefit society as a whole. Therefore, Mill argues that women deserve the right to divorce, legal guardianship of their children, the right to property, the right to a career, and the right to education. Mill argues that women should have the right to divorce because of the amount of times that there is an unhealthy relationship among partners, which can be abusive, unfulfilling, and unsupportive. Men were the only ones allowed to initiate divorce and laws in place, along with societal values, made it extremely hard for women to divorce their husband. If a divorce occurred between husband and wife,

Michel Rolle was born on April 21, 1652, into a struggling family in Ambert, Basse-Auvergne (a province in France at the time). Rolle’s father was a lowly shopkeeper and couldn’t support his family by himself. For this reason, Rolle left his educational aspirations shortly after elementary school and began to help support his family. He began working as a transcriber for a notary and then worked as an assistant to several attorneys in the district around his home town. He did this while self educating himself in order to work towards a better life for himself and his family.

Handbooks were written for either men or women that shared gender codes that were not legal laws, but established gender socializations that were taught at young ages. One handbook stated when a girl is young, “the chief duty of a girl living in the parental house is to practice filial piety toward her mother and father” (McClain, 2002, p. 94). Then once a woman is married, the new wife “must look to her husband as a lord and must serve him….. [and] when the husband issues his instructions the wife must never disobey them” (McClain, 2002, p. 94). In addition to abiding by the orders of her husband, the new wife must honor her father-in-law and mother-in-law more than her own parents and perform any task asked for them. Women were not only demanded who to obey, but they also had limits placed on their feelings. Women were told to “avoid extravagance” and act in a proper demeanor, “courteous, humble and conciliatory; never peevish, intractable, rude and arrogant” (McClain, 2002, p. 94). While women were banned from divorcing their husbands, men could divorce their wives for reasons as simple as disobedience, an inability to bear children, lewd acts, jealousy, leprosy, or “disturb[ance to] the harmony of the household”(McClain, 2002, p. 94).

During the 1960’s American women were confined to their houses. They were limited in almost every aspect of their lives. Expectations included: marrying young, starting a family, and devoting themselves to housework and their children. Wives had no legal right to their husbands money or property; however a husband could control their wife’s. Treatment of women was discriminatory. Judy Brady, a feminist, spoke out about the issues women were facing through her writing. Brady was inspired to write her “Why I Want a Wife” article after attending a feminist consciousness-raising session. “Why I Want a Wife” was printed in Ms. Magazine in 1970. In “Why I Want a Wife” Brady argues her claim that women’s roles were being underappreciated and the idealistic

Divorce was not common during the 1850’s, and it was a last resort in most cases. Marriage during these times were a legal contract in some sense bounded by the state and God. It was always understood that a third-party was looming over a marriage making sure a matrimony was kept. During these divorce samples we can see the courts trying desperately to keep marriages unified. It often takes more than one trial for couples to achieve divorce and it may involve some lying to achieve divorce.