Reflection Of 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.

Poverty is defined as deficiency, or inadequacy. It can be used to represent more than just the lack of money. Poverty is constant throughout the novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton. Poverty is evident in almost every area of Ethan's life.

“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.

By taking the reader through Ethan Frome’s winding emotional journey, Edith Wharton in Ethan Frome, examines the effects of both physical, as well as emotional isolation on the human condition. The novel is set in the frigid winter, likely in the late 1800’s, in the rural, secluded, fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Ethan’s downtrodden farm is on the outskirts of this already remote, small community. Wharton strategically uses the isolated setting, Ethan’s unmitigated poverty and his loveless marriage, to cut her protagonist off from desperately needed meaningful connections. First, the failing health of his elderly parents forces Ethan to forego his dreams of a urban engineering career, to return to his isolated rural farm,

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.

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 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.

“If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die”- Maya Angelou. The motif of death Angelou displays inaugurates a connection to the theme that death is inevitable, it catches up and may conceivably end life. In the novella, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton utilizes the motif of death in order to characterize Ethan as a lively, passionate being who turned into a lifeless person who has lost purpose in life after the elm accident, causing Mattie to be forever paralyzed.

In the novella Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan’s impulsive actions affect his life negatively. Ethan should not have married Zeena so soon after his mother’s death. If Ethan hadn't married Zeena he could have had a happy life and married his true love. Another impulsive choice Ethan made was attempting suicide.

In the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome was imprisoned within a love triangle between his wife, Zeena Frome, and her cousin, Mattie Silver. Mattie Silver was who he longed for with great admiration, but he was bound by the marriage vows with his ill wife. Why had Ethan Frome not just divorced his wife? One may speculate, and one may contemplate the question of why Ethan Frome was constricted by the rules of society which in the end further isolated him from those he loved. Nevertheless, if he did not follow the rules, he would simply be an archetype of disappointment among his peers.

Rights are important to everyone's well being. Women’s rights are important rights that have been long fought for. The desire to be treated equal. Feminism is a key role in the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. In the novel Ethan Frome feminism is established through a parallel between Edith Wharton's life and Ethan Frome her novel.

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, follows the story of a great man whose indecisiveness and discomposure leads to his downfall. Ethan’s town and its harsh winters oppress him further; his family provides little support as well. He feels obligated to take care of his loved ones as they fall ill, yet he disregards his own wellbeing. As the novel progress, Ethan never learns how to care for himself. Zeena maintains a dominant role in the Frome household despite her knowledge of Ethan’s tentative behavior. On the contrary, Mattie tries to strengthen Ethan’s aggressive personality by letting him control their relationship. His relationship with people within the community rarely differs; all its citizens are negatively affected by the weather. Ethan’s

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