In many ways, the ideas and themes expressed in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome are comparable to those detailed in Margaret Atwood’s poem, “February”. As both works of literature feature the cold winter months or a single harsh winter month as the respective settings for the pieces, the messages that the writers intend to convey to their readers is incredibly similar. In both cases, winter symbolizes the repression of love and passion and the increased frequency of depressing thoughts. Atwood writes that in February, “famine / crouches in the bed sheets.../ and pollution pours / out of our chimneys to keep us warm” (20-24). In the life of her speaker, there is no love during this cold, brutal month. She has no one else to keep her bed warm, …show more content…
Similarly, Ethan Frome is unable to generate affection from or toward his wife, causing him to consider Mattie as a more romantically exciting partner. The bleak winter backdrop of this novel evokes the sense that Ethan’s love life is just as sparse and dead as the snow-laden world around him. His only source of heat during these months is Mattie, but he cannot succumb to his desires to relish in her warmth and love because he is trapped by his inability to escape from his tragic circumstances. In both works of literature, the speaker and Ethan long for a warmth and a fire that they cannot have due to the coldness that dominates their lives. Furthermore, the cats that play a role in both the poem and in Ethan Frome serve as blatant reminders that love is absent from the characters’ lives. In “February”, the speaker is woken up each morning, not by a lover, but by “a black fur sausage with yellow Houdini eyes” (3-4). Perhaps, this cat is her only companion in the dismal bleakness that is winter. And perhaps, in addition to the warmth provided by the crackling blaze on the hearth, the only other source of warmth comes from the …show more content…
The animal essentially takes on the role of the journeying matriarch, reminding Ethan and Mattie that, despite Zeena’s absence, her presence could still be felt. No acts of love could proceed in that house, for the cat was a force that separated the two “would-be” lovers from acting on the desires of their hearts. While Ethan and Mattie were enjoying their night alone, the cat “...lay watching them with narrowed eyes…” (Wharton 66). And just as Ethan moved to grasp Mattie’s hand, “the cat had jumped from Zeena’s chair…[and had] set up a spectral rocking” (Wharton 70). Again, any hope for a romantic gesture was eradicated as the cat’s actions forced the characters to remember Zeena’s existence, and consequently the roles they each played in her life. Lastly, the poem’s line, “It’s all about sex and territory, / which are what will finish us off / in the long run” (13-15) sends a message that rings true in Ethan Frome, as well. The downfall of Ethan and Mattie occurred as a result of their refusal to live without each other’s love. They both wanted that which they could not have, and their only solution was
Throughout the book, Ethan himself appears to be lifeless which reflected on how he lived his life due to not pursuing his dreams and remaining in the same old town his ancestors inhabited. Ethan is not the only one dreaming within the book. Mattie also pictures herself with Ethan in the future and it does come true. However, she is not Ethan’s wife like she planned to be. She is stuck with both Ethan and her cousin as her cousin cares for her and the man of her dreams. The reality they are facing becomes more of a hell than a happy ending as they imagined it would
Powerful Winter Imagery in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. Ethan Frome, the title character of Edith Wharton's tragic novel, lives. in his own world of silence, where he replaces his scarcity of words with images and dreams and fantasies. There is striking symbolism in the imagery. predominantly that of winter, which connotes frigidity, detachment, bleakness.
Several Years after their marriage, cousin Mattie Silver is asked to relieve Zeena, who is constantly ill, of her house hold duties. Ethan finds himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, “ The pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie.” Ethan is attracted to Mattie because she is the opposite of Zeena, while Mattie is young, happy, healthy, and beautiful like the summer, Zeena is seven years older than Ethan, bitter, ugly and sickly cold like the winter. Zeena’s strong dominating personality undermines Ethan, while Mattie’s feminine, lively youth makes Ethan fell like a “real man.” Ethan and Mattie finally express their feeling for each other while Zeena is visiting the doctor, and are forced to face the painful reality that their dreams of being together can not come true.
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.
As one reads just the very few pages of the book, symbols are relevant here and there. One of the first symbols introduced is the town Starkfield. As one would mostly think Starkfield was nonetheless just a city name Wharton came up with. Meriam webster dictionary defines the prefix word “Stark” as bare, cold or empty appearance. It is now clear of how pivotal this symbol is to the story. Wharton uses this symbol to “symbolize the devastating and isolating effects of the harsh winters on the land” (Boodie). With this town we presume its an icy cold one due to the descriptions in the novel. This proceeds to the symbolism of the winter season which seems to be mostly in effect throughout the story. The winter season symbolizes feelings such as isolation and loneliness. As we all know, the winter brings on snow, ice, wind, coldness and even further in depth darkness and death. Throughout the story we see Frome hide himself in the nature of the town. With the symbolism of nature we see Ethan hiding himself through the harshness of the winter. Quoting Book Rags “ Ethan embodies the somber and bleak landscape of Starkfield itself.” With that said we can see the importance of the nature on the character’s characteristics.
The narrator, upon meeting Ethan Frome for the first time, thought "he seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface." He "had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, but had in it…the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters" (Wharton, 9).
Mattie and Zeena, the two leading women characters in this novel have many differences that set them apart from each other, but also similarities that grab the reader’s interest. When they both entered Ethan’s life, they were a breath of fresh air that broke the silence in Ethan’s life. However, the crisp air that Mattie brought was prolonged and when Ethan began falling into a pit of silence again, she was there to get him to speak his mind and let out his emotions. She tried to have a positive outlook on life and to try new things to benefit her and others around her. Mattie was more outgoing and spontaneous opposed to Zeena. While Mattie was out and about in the town, Zeena was home all day. Zeena was bitter and controlling towards Ethan and everyone else in her life. Regardless, they were both willing to help when push came to shove. "Zeena 's done for Mattie, and done for Ethan, as good as she could. It was a miracle, considering how sick she was – but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her. Not as she 's ever given up doctoring, and she 's had sick spells right along; but she 's had the strength given her to care for those two for over twenty years, and before the accident came she thought she couldn 't even care for herself” (Wharton 23). So despite of Zeena being cruel and pessimistic most of the time, she was willing to return the favor of kindness and
This quote is explaining the feeling of Ethan when Mattie Silver comes into his home. Ethan was gloomy and pretty much sick of his wife and when Mattie comes to his house she brings hope and a whole new outlook on life to Ethan. Ethan feels that she is warm person and a polar opposite compared to Zeena. Her coming transforms Ethan?s cold and depressing existence.
In Ethan Frome, the theme of winter is predominantly used, with its confining nature, to portray each character’s hardships. For example, the theme of winter is directly linked with Ethan Frome and the harsh conditions he has to endure to survive. To Ethan, the wintry snow in Starkfield seems elegant and appealing, but as he sees later on, the snow is unveiled as a major obstacle, preventing Ethan from achieving his dreams. Winter manifests itself as the ice, cold, and snow symbolically representing the isolation that Ethan experiences. As the narrator states “when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow… must have been in Ethan Frome's young manhood,” The solitude that winter brings causes Starkfield to
Edith Wharton, originally named “Edith Newbold Jones”(Cliff Notes), was born on “January 24, 1862 in New York City to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander Jones and died on August 11, 1937”(Cliff Notes). She was born into a wealthy family and was a “designer, short story writer and American novelist”(Cliff Notes). Wharton descended from the English and Dutch cultures. She had two siblings, one known as “Frederic Rhinelander Jones” (Cliff Notes) who was sixteen years older than her, and “Henry Edward Jones eleven years older”(Cliff Notes). While her brothers attended boarding school, Wharton became “raised as an only child in a brownstone mansion on West Twenty-third Street in New York City”(Cliff
When Zeena was there while Ethan's mother was ill to "nurse her", she gave him the "human speech" he longed for because his mother had "lost the power of speech." Ethan felt that he would be "dreadful" if "left alone" if Zeena were to leave him, so he ended up marrying her so she would stay. Ethan is unable to make decisions without thinking of her first or being reminder that she's the one he is loyal to because of this attachment. Even having blissful moments with Mattie, Ethan cannot rid his mind of Zeena. While having supper, the cat "jumped between them into Zeena's empty chair" and when reminded of Zeena, Ethan was "paralyzed." Ethan is happy when with Mattie, but his love for her will never rid him from Zeena. Ethan was even planning o asking the Hales for currency, but the thought of "leaving alone" his "sickly woman" led him to desert his plan in taking money to leave Zeena by herself. This shows that even in his desire to escape her, Ethan values their marriage and is still thinking of her greater good. Ethan's happiness resides in Mattie to the point where he was willing to kill himself to be with her forever, however, midway through the attempt, "his wife's face, with twisted monstrous ligaments, thrusts itself between him and his goal." Due to Zeena showing herself to Ethan near death, he "swerved in response" which may have caused the attempt to fail. This scene demonstrates how Ethan, even when
Tale of the Living Dead Ethan Frome, by Edith Warton is truly a tale of the “living dead”. Don’t be confused by the way this term is used in movies, where the living dead are corpses that rise from the ground. In this case, the term “living dead” refers to a person who is physically alive but emotionally dead. In the novel, Ethan Frome, all three main characters are emotionally dead. The characters have been emotionally dead since the "smash-up" in which Ethan and Mattie crashed their sled into a tree.
(Hoffman). The book also talks about how Ethan’s isolation in his marriage and in his life is the reason that at the end of the book the condition, and quality of life at the Frome household is very tense and quiet, “. but winters there’s the fires to be thought of; and there ain’t a dime to spare up at the Fromes” (Wharton 93). Ethan’s isolation and loneliness began when his mom died and he was left in the farm house all alone and had to keep up with the farm and house work.
In the book “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton, Ethan, the main character in the book, experiences many episodes of isolation persuading him to escape from and cope with them with outlets of hope, only leading to a life of permanent isolation. The story depicts a classic ironic switch of roles and a triangle of unusual “love.” With many people coming and going, Ethan looks to rely on someone to relieve his isolation and communicate with, only setting him up for trouble.
...k Cat. The narrator with his degraded morals could only function as a killing machine. He became a being with a one track mind, his mind filling with thoughts to kill and not be found, the true feelings of being alive escaped from him. Once a logic system of cause and effect replaces the conscience of a man these true human feelings of love, friendship, and even true happiness are forever forsaken. Not to mention that when one stoops as low as the narrator did these feelings become skeletons of their former meaning, leaving behind a person with an emotionless calculating mind, which with the right ingredients can become a lethal combination. In conclusion the narrator of the Black Cat portrays a case of the ultimate descent into madness and a man who could not handle his guilt, turning himself into a victim but ultimately a victim whom is in denial about his actions.