Starkfield Internal Conflict

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

So, it can be seen that Zeena and Mattie do have common feelings for Ethan Frome. She probably has resentment and dislike for Ethan From and even herself since it was her idea to crash the sleigh into the oak tree. Also, since her youthfulness was cut short because of an accident and there was no everlasting love that followed it.

Frome’s suffering brought about by forces beyond his control. Included in these forces are the weather and time of year, leaving for college and having to come back, and falling in love. The winter weather influnces Ethan to marry Zeena.Due to the seasonal weather, Ethan makes a poor choice in marrying Zeena. “After the funeral, when he saw her [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter” (44). This quote substantiates Ethan’s regret in marrying Zeena. He believes he wouldn’t have made that same decision had it been spring time. Another force beyond Ethan’s control is seen in the introduction, it is about Ethan being forced to come home on page 5 ““Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warn’t ever anybody but Ethan. Fust his father – then his mother.””(25). This quote relates to when Ethan was forced from college and back to the

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 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.

Ethan marries Zeena and falls in love with Mattie as a direct response to his neediness for care and company. As well, Ethan also finds it a necessity to be accepted by Starkfield, which compels him to live with Zeena and finally stops him from escaping with Mattie. Ethan’s desire for love and acceptance could have been the outcome of a neglected childhood. He had been caring for his parents from a young age, as Harmon Gow tells the narrator, “Sickness and trouble: that’s what Ethan’s had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping”(6). Ethan spent most of his life caring for others and possibly lacked love from his own sick parents, which may be the reason for his neediness for society to be both proud of him and others to give him the care, which he had to give up from an early age, taking care of his parents. As many studies show, the young need love and affection in order to help with their self-esteem and it is a vital aspect of one’s mental health. Seeing the outcome of Ethan, a lack of care for the young, may cause detrimental effects on ones life as he or she grows

Zeena appears to use her illness as a way to manipulate others to do things. Ethan usually does things to please Zeena. He is taking care of her and feels as if he cannot run off and abandon her. Zeena is controlling over Ethan and wants him to do whatever she pleases. She went away to see another doctor to get a second opinion on her illness and used Ethan’s money to pay for the treatment that she was prescribed even though she knew she wouldn’t be able to do the treatment. As the relationship between Ethan and Zeena becomes worse, Zeena is able to sense the relationship between Ethan and Zeena and becomes

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.

Zeena started to figure out how Ethan was starting to replace her when he began spending more time on Mattie than on her. One of the first times in which Zeena finds out that Ethan was using up his time for Mattie was when “he did his best to supplement her unskilled efforts, getting up earlier than usual to light the kitchen fire, carrying the wood overnight, and

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.

And he also gets a better understanding of how Dimmesdale’s sin and guilt is affecting him and his everyday life. In fact, at one point Dimmesdale wants Hester to admit he is the father for him and tells her, “Heaven has granted you the opportunity to work out an open triumph over evil within yourself. Do not deny him the same chance, for perhaps he does not have the courage to grasp the opportunity himself” (Hawthorne 23). Dimmesdale tells Hester this because he wants her to confess for him, because he is not brave enough to do it himself. In Ethan Frome the narrator is being told the story about a young man named Ethan Frome. The narrator says, “I heard the story, bit by bit, from various people and…the story was different each time” (Wharton 1). Like Dimmesdale, Ethan is becoming an image in the narrator’s mind. Although in Ethan Frome the narrator eventually meets Ethan and can get a real image of him. While talking about the first time he/she saw Ethan the narrator says, “…I took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he wasn’t much older than fifty” (Wharton 2). Also in both works the narrators are reading or hearing a story from many years ago. Because the narrator hears about the story of Ethan from people who know him and know a great deal about the situation he is in, he/she is able to get a better concept about the expectations society has of Ethan and his personal desires.

Ethan Hawley, the protagonist of the novel, was originally born into a privileged, upper-class family that resided in the state of New York. Unfortunately, the Hawley family soon lost the affluence of their ancestors and became impecunious. This lead Ethan to live an unremarkable life as a grocery clerk with his wife and two children in the small town of New Baytown. As a result, his wife, Mary, is dissatisfied and blames Ethan for their adverse class status and holding their children back from obtaining a high social status with lavish wealth. This can be seen when Mary says, “You could climb out of it if you didn't have your old-fashioned fancy-pants ideas…A grand gentleman without money is a bum” (Steinbeck 35). Consequently, Ethan takes note of this and begins going against his own righteous morals in order to please his family financially by planning to rob a bank. This

Although Frome can be held responsible for his moral inactivity, he can be considered a morally inadequate man in his present state. His inadequacy, however, was not a constant in life or a sudden occurrence-- it snowballed from his youth and finally solidified through the ‘smash-up’. His earlier experiences in a university and the joy it brought him was quickly interrupted after a year by his sickly parents. The unfortunate circumstance forces Ethan Frome to move back to the depressing Starkfield he had just escaped. His parents’ illnesses bring along Zenobia, who would be another future, unseen oppression along with Starkfield. For years, Ethan lives in depressing conditions that decline as time goes on. The chance to finally leave them behind, however, comes in Mattie, Zenobia’s cousin and maid. Ethan’s inability to act on this chance of escape finally seals his fate when Mattie is paralyzed and he is critically injured. Although jinxed with unfortunate circumstances, Ethan Frome’s life could have been bettered if one small step or action was taken by him for himself with the intention to create personal joy or pleasure.

After Ethan’s father’s death, he was completely by himself in Starkfield. He felt a sense of loneliness, until he married Zeena. This brought his spirit up and increased “his faith in his ability as well as his eagerness to see the world” (Wharton 29). However, Ethan found this happiness to be ephemeral, leading him back to a secluded social life. With the arrival of Mattie, Ethan’s happiness was restored. He felt a strong connection with her and that she “trembled with the same touch of wonder” (14). Both Ethan and Mattie examined the

Ethan frome is the main character of Edith Wharton's novel. Ethan lives a miserable life, resents his lost opportunities and hates living a loveless marriage. He is often trapped between his obligations to his wife Zenna what what society limits him to. Ethan studied a year in college and if he hadn't been called upon to tend for his mother, the mill and the farm, he probably would have been really successful in his profession. He felt as if it was his responsibility of care for the mill and the farm. After his mother died, he asked his mother’s caretaker, Zeena to marry him because he thought it was his responsibility to do so since she had taken care of his mother and because he was trying to escape the loneliness and silence of his