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Symbolism in ethan frome
Essay about symbolism in the novel ethan from
Ethan from morality
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Ethan Frome is to be held accountable for the destruction of his own life. He cannot make any decisions, for better or for worse. His indecision over what to do about his passionate, illicit feelings for Mattie and his dislike for Zeena are entirely his own fault. He is too cowardly to do anything. He attempts to hide his cowardice by blaming his indecision and its consequences on circumstance, but his true nature indubitably shows through. Instead of actually doing anything, he just waits for something to happen. This something is inevitably bad.
Ethan is conflicted between giving in to his desires and maintaining social and moral order. He loves Mattie, and is desperate to express his passion. He has plenty of chances to do so, yet, his conscience and the limitations he imposes on himself tell him that it would be wrong:
He knew that most young men made nothing at all of giving a pretty girl a kiss, and he remembered the night before, when he had put his arm about Mattie, and she had not resisted. But that had been out-of-doors, under the open, irresponsible night. Now, in the warm lamp-lit room, with all its ancient implications of conformity and order, she seemed infinitely farther away from him and more unapproachable (Wharton 81).
Ethan’s moral compass warns him that he should listen to the rules of society. Any expression of his love for Mattie would not only be frowned upon by society, but it would also be an injustice to Zeena. Although Ethan abhors the sight of his old, whining, ugly wife, he could not do that to her. The obligations that bind him in a loveless marriage to Zeena hold him back from fulfilling his obligations to himself in a passionate love for Mattie.
Ethan’s indecision is an expression of his lack of...
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...decisive. He and his wife might have moved out to the city, where Ethan could have pursued his engineering career. And, when Mattie Silver came to live with them, Ethan Frome, content with his lot in life, would not have fallen into the love that caused his hardships. Ethan caused his own misfortune by not even attempting to make a change in his unsatisfactory life. As one of the ladies in town, Mrs. Hale, says: “I don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard” (157). Ethan exists lifelessly. His unwillingness to change, lack of self-responsibility, sense of obligation, and lack of inner strength and courage all add up to his irresponsibility in creating his own misfortune, which sends him to his living grave.
Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. In Our Time. New York: Scribner Paperback Fiction, 1996. Print.
Ethan Frome, the main character, portrays a weak character. He illustrates his weakness as a person in many ways. It starts off with him marrying his wife that he didn’t marry for the right reasons, then wanting her dead, so he can be with Mattie, the love of his life, and because Zeena is self-willed. He then agrees to partake in the very most thing that demonstrates how weak and desperate he really becomes. He has many difficulties and things he has to overcome and stand up to that he can’t find the courage and strength to do so and because of this becomes a weak character.
Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causes his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge, giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night.
The book says, “His wife had never shown any jealousy of Mattie, but of late she had grumbled increasingly over the house-work and found oblique ways of attracting attention to the girl 's inefficiency(Wharton, chpt 1).” This means Zeena knew about the love affair. Because Ethan and Zeena did not honestly love each other, the affair did not bother Zeena. Eventually, though, Zeena wants to force Mattie to go back home. Ethan and Mattie are extremely devastated by this. Ethan is not in love with either girl, but cannot leave either one. What happened next was a sleigh riding accident. Ethan purposely drove a sled into a tree hoping to kill Mattie and himself. By doing this he could escape all his responsibilities. He would not be abandoning anyone technically. The immaturity in Ethan 's personality is shown through this event. The accident caused Ethan and Zeena to be obligated to care for Mattie for the rest of their lives. Because the accident was intentional Ethan should be held accountable for it. He was supposed to be a mature adult who made the right decisions. He failed at this. Ethan should have been put in jail for this mishap. Moreover, Mattie did die that day because her liveliness
Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.
From the beginning of the story, society opposed Ethan Frome in any ways. To begin with, he was a prisoner with his wife, Zeena. Just because Zeena took care of his mother as she was dying, Ethan felt like she was the woman for him. However, when Zeena’s cousin Mattie came to live with them, he instantly fell in love with her, and felt nothing but audacity towards his wife. When Zeena goes away due to her illness, Ethan and Mattie sit at home planning their future ahead of them. He plans to elope and run away with Mattie, but he cannot lie to his neighbors, Mr and Mrs. Hale in order to achieve the money he needs. In the end, Ethan decides to abandon life itself along with his true love Mattie. Ethan was a prisoner to poverty. When he was young, he wanted to leave his family farm in order to move to a larger town to become an engineer. However, that plan backfired and he was trapped in Starkfield for life. Society does not want Ethan to be happy for he committed adultery and treated his wife like she didn’t matter. The gravestones in his yard are a reminder t...
Ethan is the definition of a teenager and this characterization is known for making bad decisions so whenever he makes a decision in the book the reader can predict that something's going to go wrong like when he agrees to rob a bank or when he smashed his dad’s car in the first place.
Book Rags Inc. "Ethan Frome Notes on the Death and Isolation Themes." BookRags. BookRags, n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. .
Ethan Frome is not only an excellent piece of writing, and moving story, but also causes a reflection that we, too, create vivid fantasies and hopes to escape our fears.
Mrs. Hale tells the narrator that if Mattie had dies, Ethan may have lived, but as things are, his existence is a kind of a living death. In addition, in chapter two, he had asked his dead ancestors, at their graves, to help him keep Mattie with him. We find that his natural ally is death and life is his enemy. Mrs. Hale believes that Mattie? surviving the accident is literally a fate that is worse than death, since the dead hold their peace, whereas Mattie and Zeena are often mad at each ther, adding to Ethan?s suffering and unhappiness.
The main theme of the book Ethan Frome is failure. It is shown in three ways throughout the story: Ethan's marriage, him not being able to stand up to Zeena, and his involvement in the "smash up".
There is no questioning whether Ethan Frome loves Mattie or not, but his love for Mattie keeps him blind from the grand scheme of his situation. Moments before their failed suicide attempt, Ethan "strained his eyes through the dimness, and they seemed less keen, less capable than usual." In reality, Ethan is unable to see the consequences of his behavior when he is around Mattie. Even
His demise is when he has thoughts of running away from his present life. "Frome was in the habit of walking into Starkfield to fetch home his wife's cousin, Mattie Silver, on the rare evenings in which some chance of amusement drew her to the village" (Wharton 16). His tragic flaw is shown in this quote because he picks Mattie up after parties due to the fact that he is concern that a dangerous person might harm her. These pickups lead to his demise because every time he picks her up, they grow closer. Another event that leads to his demise is when "'I'll try to get a place in a store 'You know you can't do it. The bad air and the standing all day nearly killed you before'' (Wharton 85). This piece of evidence demonstrates Ethan's flaw because when Mattie suggests the kind of job she will have in the future, he is concern of her well-being and working conditions of that job. As Ethan starts to have romantic feelings towards Mattie, he is getting closer to his demise. When they start talking about Mattie's future, Ethan starts to have thoughts of running away from his present life. "'if I could ha' gone with you now I ha' done it'" (Wharton 86). This is Ethan's demise because once he has thoughts of leaving with Mattie his future actions are determined by this demise. His future actions eventually leads to unforeseen consequences that haunt him for the rest of his life.
The crash left them both severely injured. The Fromes were poor before, but after, with Ethan only able to do a little work, they were poorer than ever. Never a social man, Ethan cut off the few relationships that he had maintained so his old friends would not see his poverty. The townspeople speak of Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena in the past tense, just like they refer to dead people. When Mrs. Ned Hale talks about Ethan and Mattie she said, "Yes, I knew them both.
Ethan quickly realized that this marriage with her wouldn’t give him the sense of happiness that he wanted, but instead made Ethan feel even more alone and even less happy than he was after his mom had died “.makes him feel further removed from happiness.” (Hoffman). This situation furthers once Mattie arrives at the Frome household and Zeena begins to isolate herself in her room, complaining that she is sick and needs bed rest. This sense of isolation is especially shown when the Narrator tries to talk to Ethan and gain more details about his life, but Ethan won’t talk “, he has trouble obtaining further details. Ethan’s isolation is evident in their conversation.”
He is physically isolated from the world and is also cut off from the possibility of any relationship. Due to his new situation, he looks for an outlet in order to relieve himself from this isolation. Luckily enough for him, Mattie comes around in order to help Zeena out due to her illness. Wharton writes, “...the coming to his house of a bit hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire under a cold heart” (Wharton 33). As Smith recognizes in this comparison, he says that “His (Ethan) life of isolation changes, however, when Mattie Silver comes to stay with him and his wife” (Smith 96). Smith correctly analyzes Ethan’s situation, labeling Mattie as this outlet of hope that he can turn to in order to cope with his isolation. Wharton herself shows that Ethan truly did view Mattie as his outlet for hope, mainly due to his love for her, which Mattie shares equally for him. This love sprouts from many things including attractiveness, conversation, understanding, and listening, many of which he lacks for his whole life and where most of his isolation roots itself. Wharton writes, “She had an eye to see and an ear to hear: he could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could wake at will” (Wharton 28). This is a fancy way of saying that they Mattie not only listened to Ethan, but also