Poverty In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

Ethan’s ignorance and hopefulness. He doesn’t fully comprehend his actions which also emphasizes his immaturity.

Events such as his attempt at suicide or how they both survived their suicide attempt and Ethan was forced to relive his dreadful life of taking care of the one he loved in their debt. This is a great example of how Edith Wharton uses irony to support the idea of Ethan being a tragic hero. The entire novel, Ethan and Mattie had been sneaking behind Zeena’s back, secretly taking part in a very confusing, somewhat childish relationship, and going as far as to try to kill themselves, only for Ethan to remain stationed in his life of aid and depression. Another example that supports this idea of a tragic hero is one in which Wharton uses the literary element of symbolism. During the event in which it is Ethan and Mattie’s first time home alone, Mattie decides to bring down Zeena’s sacred pickledish off the shelf onto the dining room table, only to be knocked over and broken by their cat.

In the bitter town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, a traveler finds himself in a snowstorm and has to take shelter in the house of Ethan Frome, a old man with a bad leg. Many years prior, Ethan worked as a millworker. He later married Zenobia Frome who fell ill soon after. Zenobia’s young cousin, Mattie Silver, goes to the house to assist her. Ethan finds himself infatuated with Mattie and can’t bare the thought of living with his dull wife in that bitter town. Ethan dreamt of running away with young and beautiful Mattie. Did he stay to tend to his wife, or was he smart and got out of town?

Many people aim to please society because of the fear of getting reprimanded by others. Most people don’t pursue their dreams because of the concern of what their peers might think of them or how others will view them for the rest of their life. Ethan Frome faces many of the same conflicts such as whether to stay by his sick wife’s side or run away with her cousin, whom he actually loves and has feelings for. Edith Wharton uses many symbols, such as the red colored items, the household cat, and the pickle dish, in Ethan Frome indicating the deeper meanings of the characters’ situations.

Ethan Frome went through a lot of struggles and kept going through big struggles in the novel some people would of giving up if they ever went through what ethan went through. Ethan kept going and going

Ethan Frome, a novel by Edith Wharton, is a story about a man who is no longer in love with his wife, and soon finds love with her cousin. Ethan got married to an older woman named Zeena and is who he’s fallen out of love with. Mattie Silver, (Zeena’s cousin) moved in with them to help around their house because Zeena is sick. Ethan soon becomes head over heels for her. At this point, he can’t even stand the sight of Zeena and wants to run away with Mattie. As much as he wants to be with Mattie, he doesn’t wanna go against his vows of marriage with Zeena.

In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton is saying that unhappiness resulting from having to choose between love and unwanted responsibility cannot be avoided. Through her use of imagery, she illustrates the difficulty of making choices between what is expected and what is desired. Ethan becomes happy when his responsibility to his wife Zeena goes away when she leaves town, and he is able to pursue his love for Mattie. The world is described differently whether Ethan depending on who Ethan is with, and imagery is used to show his emotions. Mattie is always described as being colorful, while Zeena is seen mostly in darker colors.

   "Dependent personality disorder."(Morris)  To people who suffer from this disorder, making a decision is virtually impossible. It is only by getting assistance from others that they can make even the simplest of choices. When some of these people come together, they rely on each other to help them with decision-making.  Unfortunately, the codependency created by this situation frequently makes it impossible for these people to separate. In fact, they often become so interdependent that subconsciously they increasingly act in ways that will maintain the status quo. In Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome, the three major characters are so dependent on each other that no matter

A third poverty in the novel, is a poverty of character. Ethan, though tried to the limit, shows a deficiency of morals. On page 132, he writes, " Zeena, I've done all I could for you, and I don't see as it's been any use. I don't blame you, nor I don't blame myself. Maybe both of us will do better separate. I'm going to try my luck out West, and you can sell the farm and mill, and keep the money-" He writes this even though he knows that his property will not earn any profit at all, and that leaving her would be the ruin of her. He dreams of abandoning his wife, as well as his life. He wants to

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome there are many symbols that are used to represent the many emotions or moods present in the novel. The setting of story is in Starkfield, Massachusetts in the middle of winter which is an occurring symbol in story and, how it effects the people in Starfield especially Ethan Frome and his family. The winter represents the different circumstances that appear in the novel such as Starkfield which is seen as a dull, dark, and quiet place full of mostly poor people. The people of Starkfield aren’t full of joy and seem to be very sluggish and unfriendly.

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.

Themes, which are main ideas or underlying meanings in work, are used to add more definition and meaning to a story. In the novel, “Ethan Frome” written by Edith Wharton, the themes of death and life are often expressed within the characters. The characters Ethan and Mattie are examples of the theme of life, while Zeena becomes an example of death.

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.

Fulfillment of desire is human nature, an aspect of a person that is universal. Throughout the story of ‘Ethan Frome’ by Edith Wharton, the self-titled protagonist struggles to fulfill his own desires, battling social norms as well as his own morality. Even when the whole situation has been set out to work perfectly for Frome, he cannot bring himself to cheat on his wife, an aspect that is admiring, but ultimately self-crippling. His indecisiveness is not only an aspect that drives the whole story forward, but a trait that leads to his own undoing. In a final twist of irony, the penultimate scene of the story not only sums up the consequences of the characters’ mistakes, but as well as a fate that coincides with the very same social and moral

Since the story uses a certain object, the Jacket, as the meaning of several issues, it primarily focuses on the narrator's poverty-stricken family. First of all, an example of the poverty is demonstrated when the narrator complains that the jacket "was so ugly and big that I knew I'd have to wear it a long time"(paragraph 3). It is clear that his lack of money was a problem in which he