Inner Conflicts In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome was characterized as an isolated and poor lived character. He was very society based. In his younger years, he was a follower, he lived his life based on what everyone else was doing. After he graduated, he thought the correct thing to do was fall in love and get married, however, he found out the hard way that that is not how life should be and he realized that many years later after he suffered.

Ethan Frome and his wife, Zenobia (Zeena), never really know what true love feels like because they are both very lonely people. They meet when Zeena is caring for Ethan’s mother; due to their loneliness, they mistake the bizarre feeling of companionship for love. Ethan marries Zeena, not because he is in love, but because he does not want to be alone and he feels like he owes it to her for everything she is doing for him. She is aware of this and claims, “...you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother! And my folks all told me at the time you couldn 't do no less than marry me after—” (Wharton 83). In addition to Zeena saying that Ethan

In the book Ethan Frome, the characters are caught between what is right and wrong. Mattie has a torn desire to be with her sister’s husband and Ethan does not stop her because he feels the same way. The theme for the book is duty and desire. Ethan has a desire towards Mattie because she does not complain and is thought of as

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

Isolation can be the determining factor in changing one’s mindset. In Ethan Frome, Ethan faces many disappointments throughout the novel. In the novel, Ethan is an orphan since both parents have passed. His wife Zeena who is also his cousin has become the dominant one in the relationship taking over full control. While living in Starkfield, Zeena has suddenly become “sick” and is forced to bring in her cousin Mattie for help around the house. Zeena is depicted as a bitter prematurely old woman who is always “sick” while Mattie is the picture of health as well as the sweetest woman alive. When Mattie comes into the picture, she becomes the speck of happiness in which Ethan longs for but Zeena keeps taking away. This brings up a theme of failure throughout the novel.

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.

Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome’s sense of responsibility lives strong enough in him to forget about his own happiness with Mattie, to stay with his wife Zeena, and to take care of the town when all of the others have passed away. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Ethan’s sense of responsibility to his wife and land prevents him from achieving true happiness and causes his ultimate emotional death.

Felipe Armesto once said, “Every hero is somebody else’s villain”. Every individual who considers someone to be a hero can also be portrayed as a villain. In the novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton she portrays her male protagonist as both a hero and a villain. As a result, the reader can view the plot as any other human who can make mistakes. Ethan Frome a tragic hero whose greatest challenge is finding true happiness in his life. This observation presents the question: how can an individual play both roles where someone could feel sympathy for him, but also show contempt? It is this emotional reaction that the reader has for the protagonist that makes this more appreciable by a contemporary audience.

For at least the young Ethan Frome, his desire to make others happy is a defining feature of his personality. The seemingly contented man introduced to readers contrasts with the unfortunate description of his education: “his father’s death, and the misfortunes following it, had put a premature end to Ethan’s studies…” (14). Even in his youth, Ethan prioritizes the needs and wants of others over his own. While dropping out of school was inevitable once the funds stopped flowing, his decision not to sell the family farm and remain in Starkfield is the most socially acceptable thing to do. With the whole town of Starkfield watching, Ethan accepted his duties as a son and eventual husband. These obligations corned Ethan, so much so that he was not able to elope with Mattie. Although Ethan despises his wife, his concern for her is demonstrated when he thinks: “and what of Zeena’s fate?...how could she keep the farm going?” Even when he’s about to leave her, Ethan is still worried about her prospects and position in society. In this respect, Zeena personifies all inhibitors of dreams: time, money, education and ability. Ethan’s failure to get away from Zeena is indicative of his resignation to fate.

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

Mattie and Ethan never follow their love due to Ethan's morals and the respect he has for his marriage to Zeena. He wants Zeena to be well and he takes care of her when she is ill. Frome’s feelings for Mattie never oscillate and he wants to be with this woman who is not his wife. Even though Ethan only had one night with Mattie alone, he cannot help but think of what he has done as he sits in the kitchen. Mattie presents minority, beauty, and good health- all of which Zeena does not possess. It seems he favors the more hip, young, and beautiful women than dull, boring, and unattractive women.

In the novel, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome conflicts with facing reality as opposed to obtaining a false dream. Ethan has to face the reality that he is not allowed to leave with his new founded love, Maddie. He had tried to obtain the false dream of running away with her, but this love is forbidden and he was left to stay at home with his wife, Zeena.

Edith Wharton, in her novel Ethan Frome, places such an importance in the setting, specifically the locations and climate, that it seems to function as another character. However, upon closer examination of the prologue, it is easy to see that the setting is actually a reflection of Edith Frome’s emotional state. Wharton’s attempts at linking location and climate to Ethan are aided by her skillful use of a number of rhetorical devices ultimately underscoring his brokenness, isolation/imprisonment, and hopelessness. In the prologue, Edith Wharton uses a variety of rhetorical devices, such as diction and similes, to highlight the reflection of Ethan’s brokenness in the setting. Ethan is described as “the ruin of a man,” “bleak and unapproachable,” and “bent out of shape,” which all create an image of damaged goods.

In order to escape Zeena so that “[they’d] never have to leave each other” Mattie and Ethan decide to commit a double suicide by crashing into a large elm tree (143). However, instead of dying on impact, both survive—Frome, “stiffened and grizzled” (4) like “an old man” and Mattie, paralyzed from her neck down. Ironically, they achieve their goal. With Mattie bed-bound for the rest of her life and Frome too poor to move away, they have to spend the remainder of their lives together. Even more ironic is how Mattie becomes Zeena after the “smash-up,” when that was who they trying to escape (4). Bed-bound, she spends her days “[complaining] in a high thin voice,” her withered body reduced to “hollow[ed]...temples,” “shriveled [face]” and a “shapeless” form (151). Moreover, while in the past “[Zeena couldn’t even care for herself” and prevented her husband’s happiness, now that that “she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her” and effectively sustained Ethan’s personal hell

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, the setting is in Starkfield, Massachusetts, a small, stale, freezing town with people tending to gossip about everyone. Ethan has been faced with many difficulties; the death of his parents, his “sickly” wife Zenobia, and the arrival of Mattie Silver. The author uses Ethan’s personal and societal past events to show how one’s feeling of isolation can cause one to seek comfort in another being.