Edith Grossman

Both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome provide an insight into the moral ideas that have shaped New England. One major theme of The Scarlet Letter that helps to portray this is the theme of Puritanism. The religious nature of the morality shaped the society’s reaction to Hester’s affair. A major theme of Ethan Frome that helps to portray this is the theme of duty and morality vs. desire. Ethan feels he has a moral duty to remain with his wife, Zeena, even though

Edith Wharton has many different literary elements in her novels but the one that sticks out to me the most and I’m sure most of her other readers to is irony. There are three different types of irony and they are verbal, situational, and dramatic. Wharton does a good job a showing all three in her books and she makes people think when she uses situational and it is used in both books. She also uses verbal very well when she is trying to describe people and things that are the opposite of what she

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Mattie Silver portrays a warm, youthful character - the opposite personality of all other characters. Her quirky personality does not rub off on Ethan; however, Ethan's deathly personality does rub off on Mattie. Mattie Silver's presence brings forth warmth into the frozen Starkfield and delight into Ethan Frome's life. Mattie Silver is frequently associated with the color red - the color of love, leadership, and passion. She bears a “cherry scarf” (19) wrapped around

Often times, when people are hurt and taken advantage of themselves, they in turn take advantage of others. This is true of the character Ethan Frome in the novel of the same name by Edith Wharton. Zeena takes advantage of Ethan, so Ethan takes advantage of Mattie. Mattie is the true victim in the novel because she is young and impressionable, which Ethan uses to manipulate her. She has pure intentions, but ultimately ends up living a miserable life mainly to the fault of Ethan. To begin with, Ethan

order to be a better person, but “dealing with obstacles is a crucial part of being successful in life” (“The Psychological Response to Obstacles.”). Although not only are there obstacles in school but also in love stories. This is the kind of love Edith Wharton chose to write about in her book "Ethan Frome." Where the characters, Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver, experienced love but were forbidden to have due the fact that they were each other’s in-law. The love between Ethan and Mattie creates the

The fates of the characters in Ethan Frome are very cruel, despite the fact that everything that happened was because of their own deeds. Zeena’s hiding her illnesses while nursing Mrs. Frome ultimately led to Ethan’s sadness with their marriage. Ethan’s grief caused him to fall in love with Mattie. Zeena’s excitement to get Mattie away from her cheating husband led him to attempt suicide with the girl he loved. Though they caused their own downfall, Mattie, Zeena, and Ethan did not deserve their

Ethan Frome is a complex romantic novel written by Edith Wharton that tells the story of a man by the name of (you guessed it), Ethan Frome and the complex triangle relationship between himself, his wife Zeena, and his Wife’s aid/relative, Mattie Silver. While, Zeena is indeed his wife, Ethan personally describes her as a generally ugly person in terms of physical characteristics and personality. On the other hand, Ethan describes and sees Mattie as a sexy and appealing woman in her youth. This

Suicide is a great tragedy which takes many innocent lives everyday. Often times, authors incorporate suicide within their literature because it is such a great tragedy. In the novella Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, an attempted suicide is the tragic ending which leaves two characters crippled. In the novella, Ethan Frome is married to a sickly woman named Zeena. He and her cousin, Mattie Silver, care for Zeena. Ethan and Mattie fall in love but are prevented from being together because Zeena attempts

In the novel, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton the recurring theme of the classic war between passion and responsibility is advertised. In 1885 Edith married Edward Robbins Wharton. She was 23. Edward was from a good family and was of the same social class as Edith, but he was 12 years older than she was. Ethan Frome struggles to make a living as a farmer while his wife Zeena whines and complains about her imaginary sickness. When Zeena's destitute cousin, Mattie Silver comes to live with the Ethan

In his article “The Two Faces of Mattie Silver,” Gary Scharnhorst claims that Mattie Silver is not in love with Ethan Frome, as surface-level reading may indicate, but rather “a scheming temptress” who manipulates Ethan into causing his own destruction. Sharnhorst adresses the idea that the takeaway from Ethan Frome may be “a tale doomed or tragic love;” however, he insists that, when read through a critical lense, there is sufficient evidence to consider Mattie “a conniving minx.” Scharnhorst uses