Love And Love In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

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

“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.

The Novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, is a tragedy. Ethan Frome suffered tragedy because of his character flaws, errors in his judgment, and forces beyond his control. Ethan Frome married a woman, Zeena, he was lonely and not truly in love with her. When her cousin, Maddie comes to live with them Ethan becomes infatuated with her. When Maddie has to leave, Ethan and Maddie decide to kill themselves so they never would have to leave one another. In the novella of Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome, Ethan is a unique character who suffers a downfall due to character flaws, and errors in judgment, and most important forces beyond human control to in which he gains wisdom.

     The novel, Ethan Frome, was mostly centered around the desires of three people, Ethan Frome, Zeena Frome, and Mattie Silver. Ethan and Zeena have a passionless marriage, which makes it hard for Ethan to feel loved. So Ethan decides to turn to someone else someone that has a mutual desire for him, Mattie Silver. Ethan and Mattie had deep passion for one another despite the fact that Ethan is married to Mattie’s cousin Zenna. They been trying to hide their feelings from the out side world, but their feelings for one another take over. They decided that if they couldn’t be together now than they would be together in the after life. After Zenna chooses to kick Mattie out of their home Ethan says that he will drive Mattie to the train station. It is then they decide to try and commit suicide. They sled right into a tree at the bottom of the hill they had stopped to sled on. They both lived but were hurt very badly. This just proves to show how immense a desire for another human can become. It can take over your thoughts and actions leaving you to feel hopeless and aspirated at the same time.

In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the minor character Mattie Silver serves as a foil towards the main character Ethan Frome. Throughout the novel, Ethan is a man who faces many challenges in his path causing what little happiness he has to vanish therefore illuminating the work as a whole. One may realize the faults of Ethan’s ways through theme, symbolism and irony.

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.

Ethan Frome is portrayed as a tragic hero to a contemporary audience. By definition, a tragic hero is one who makes a decision that later affects he or she greatly in a critical way. In the novel, Ethan decides to marry just for the very reason to get rid of being alone. In comparison, the winters of Starkfield already make him feel lonesome and unworthy. As mentioned in the beginning of the novel, "Guess he 's been in Starkfield too many winters." (Frome 23). In the end however, Ethan 's decision was inevitable. He is just like any other individual who could not bare the fact of being alone. In agreement to the loneliness, Ethan faced throughout the novel, The Sacramento State University states, “This person is fated by the Gods or by some supernatural force to doom and

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.

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.

They say love is the strongest force in the Universe, but by god, “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton shows it can also be the stupidest. “Ethan Frome” a Fictional Romantic (and somewhat ironic) novel follows a man named Ethan Frome in his cold, melancholic life in Starkfield, Massachussetts during the late 19th century. Frome is unhappy, married, and desperate. That is until he meets Mattie Silver; his hope for a better life. Breaking down “Ethan Frome” the reader can realize that this is far more than a love story. The major theme is centered on love, but more it’s far more tragic. The novel focuses on creating a love triangle that is far from perfect and slightly awkward, but can somehow still work. Ultimately, “Ethan Frome” proves a point,

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 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.

Focusing upon love as an obsession, it can be thought that the characters in “Araby” by James Joyce and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton developed a case of obsessive love disorder. Obsessive love disorder is an extreme form of love that turns into an obsession over time, but sometimes, it could never have started from love at all.

Love ended up being the motivation behind Mattie and Ethan’s accident. Ethan knew, as stated before in the essay, that he couldn’t out of the place he was stuck in, so he decided it would be better for him and Mattie to risk killing themselves. The attempt was unsuccessful, and their lives even worse. Ethan and Mattie were now very hurt from hitting the elm tree, and they needed Zeena to now take care of them. The