Ethan's Downfall In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a book that has implications of falling in love with someone else after you are married. Wharton uses many instances of irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism to reveal the feelings of Ethan Frome towards his ideal love, Mattie Silver. The book gives rise to many questions about love, marriage, divorce, and even death. Falling in love with someone else after you are married leads to detrimental consequences.

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, setting is an important element. The setting greatly influences the characters, transportation, and activities.

Fate is an all powerful and unavoidable development of events that leads you to what you deserve based on how you life your life. In the novel “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton the three main characters; Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena, all suffered a torturous fate due to many wrong doings, primarily, all the secrets they kept for their own individual benefit. Ethan’s lie was being in love with Mattie, Mattie’s lie was being in love with Ethan, and Zeena’s lie was being deathly ill, however, these lies resulted in sneaking around, hiding, and betrayal throughout the novel. In addition, the perspective the book was written in allows the reader to pass unfair judgement on the characters based on a bias point of view.

The novel Ethan Frome is a short story packed with detail. It takes place in Starkfield and is about a farmer named Ethan Frome. Ethan made poor decisions because he was trapped living with two women; his wife, Zeena, and his wife’s cousin, Mattie. Ethan fell in love with Mattie. When Ethan and Mattie fell in love, they made a horribly rash choice making this novel a tragedy. A tragedy in literature is wherewhen a main character or hero suffers a downfall because of a character flaw, error in judgement, or forces beyond human control. The short novel, Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, is a tragedy because of Ethan Frome’s character flaws, errors in judgement and the forces beyond his control.

“There was no way out- none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light to be extinguished”(Wharton 29). Miserable routines caused by terrible occurrences trappes Ethan Frome every single day. Edith Wharton opposes the idea of following any routine. Wharton expresses that routines and cycles prevent a person from expressing their own desires or achieving their personal goals in life. These cycles prohibit a person from seeing changes within their environment and possible opportunities that could improve their life. Even if a person breaks free from a routine, an endless amount of reasons exist to pull them back in. Ethan Frome momentarily escapes from his daily routine to pursue his education, but not far into this break he has to return in order to help his family. Ethan Frome somehow found a way out of his miserable routine, but failed to take that exit; resulting in a life much worse than before. Finding a way out seems like a reasonable solution to escape bad situations, but taking such a great risk to completely change one’s entire life, seems nearly impossible for any citizens of Starkfield. In the novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton exemplifies how routines deny a person from reaching their full potential through the constant pull Ethan and other members of Starkfield receive to follow their normal, average routine and not follow their desires.

in to take care of his mother. He never did return to the college to

Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton was an astounding yet surprising novel. The theme that really stood out the most in this story was courage. Throughout the story Ethan has to build the courage to deal with his feminine conflicts that change his outlook towards other characters. The discussion of characters and their choices will take place throughout this essay too.

People have many dreams that they want to accomplish during their lifespan on earth. However, not all of the dreams can be fulfilled. The dreams and desires of a person can be hindered by interfering forces which might be external, social and environmental factors, or internal like lack of will. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton demonstrates how social factors, including rules and expectations, and environmental factors such as weather and landscape, hindered the protagonist from accomplishing his dreams. These factors together with his lack of will, played a major role in the tragedies of Ethan.

An ineffective hero, known as a tragic hero, possesses many characteristics. Ineffective heroes are doomed from the beginning, but most importantly, are wounded physically or emotionally, in most situations, as a result of their own flaws. Ethan Frome of Edith Wharton's novel, Ethan Frome, possesses characteristics of an ineffective hero. He suffers from the beginning of the novel, stuck living with his sick parents, and as a result of his flaws, he marries Zeena and falls for Mattie, resulting in both his physical and emotional fracture. However, Ethan cannot succeed and ultimately suffers, as a result of his neediness.

With reference to at least two characters in the novel Ethan Frome, show in detail how Wharton uses setting to reflect character.

Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.

The well-known narrative, Ethan Frome, is often described as similar to many classic fairy tales. Resembling most fairy tales, not only is the plot of Ethan Frome is kept simple and straightforward, but the novel also contains a number of common archetypes often found in fairy tales, such as a wicked witch and princess. The book’s plot, however, reflects a close affinity to the original fairy tale, Snow White. The novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton easily compares to many classic fairy tales, especially Snow White.

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, failure to reach one’s potential causes mental and physical wear. Ethan’s life exemplifies this concept. He is stuck in Starkfield where he does not want to be, living in poverty when he is capable of so much more. He must pay for Zeena’s medical expenses and help her with housekeeping, while also maintaining the farm.

In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, one major critical theory revolves around the psychological criticism. The novel revolves around this critical theory because Wharton wanted the reader to observe how the setting becomes dependent on the emotional state of the character and vice versa. Throughout the novel, Wharton makes changes to the environment to represent Ethan’s fondness for certain characters. On the contrary, Wharton displays how the setting directly influences Ethan’s mental state. As the reader perceives this influence that each character has on Ethan Frome, they can develop an understanding of the relationships established in the novel. This critical theory will be expressed throughout the literary analysis paper, specifically in the Novel Summary section and Literary Criticism sections. The following text will analyze the drastic changes in the environment and compare it to Ethan’s mental state.

In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton illustrates Ethan's perpetual lack of control over his destiny through Nature which binds him to Starkfield with no hope of escape. Nature always has control over his life, and even when he attempts to take back any control over his life, it unrelentingly oppresses him. In the prologue, Wharton establishes that Winter dominates Starkfield like a military, blockading the people into isolation. Nature's winter surrounds the people and sends the "wild cavalry of March winds" to assist "the storms of February" that