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Gender roles related to literature
Gender roles related to literature
Gender roles related to literature
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The book that I chose to read was, Ethan Frome. The story takes place in a small New England town named Starkfield. One of the main characters names is Ethan Frome and he is walking on the streets in two feet of snow. While he is walking, he stopped in front of the church and looks through the window. I think that he is a very observant character so far. I also believe that he is a decent guy and a kind person. I predict that he will go into the church and join the dance. I predict that Ethan Frome is a really tall man because two feet of snow is hard to walk through.
The dance is about to end, until a man named Dennis Eady starts dancing again and clapping his hands. They start playing the music again and continue to dance. I think that Dennis is a show off. I believe that he just started dancing again to impress someone or is just trying to show everyone how good he can dance. There is a girl dancing with Dennis Eady and her name is Mattie Silver. I think that Dennis and Mattie are close in some way or in a relationship.
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Ethan is watching Dennis and Mattie dancing through the church window.
He can not keep his eyes off of Mattie. I think that he has feelings for Mattie in some sort of way. Mattie lives with the Frome’s as their housekeeper. He seems to have great feelings for her because after the dance he is going to walk her home. The narrator reveals that Ethan has feelings for Mattie and has for over a year. I predict that they will eventually get together and she will feel the same way about him as he does for
her. Ethan is married to a woman named Zeena. I predict that they will get a divorce because he wants Mattie and not her. I think that he should be honest with Zeena and tell her that he has feelings for another woman. Mattie is Zeena’s cousin and I honestly think that is wrong. Ethan shouldn’t want another woman while he has a wife. He needs to not only think about his own feelings, but Zeena’s also. I don’t know if he is going to make any moves on Mattie, but he shouldn’t do anything without talking to his wife about it. This is a really good story so far. I loved the beginning and how it started, until i found out that Mattie was Zeena’s cousin. It seemed like the start of a sweet romantic love story, until you find out that Ethan has a wife. The story makes me sad and feel sympathy for Zeena because her husband wants another woman. I think that this story is going to get even better and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton applied significant factors (Messages) to show how the tale of this novel is a social tragedy. Even thought (Though) this novel might seem to be a tale of personal tragedy, it is actually a tale of social tragedy. The main character of this novel, Ethan Frome, is always conflicting (with) against the society whenever he is trying to do what he desires. As a result, society affects Ethan Frome’s life in many ways; most of the time society leads him to the tragedy.
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.
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
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. 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 causing 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. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
Throughout the novel Mattie and Ethan are genuinely in love with one another. This can be proven when Mattie turned down Denis Eady the “rich Irish grocer” for Ethan. Another example was when Mattie “had an eye and an ear to hear” that not only listened but also understood Ethan. However it was the “lover” archetype that Wharton incorporated into Ethan that blurred the image of Mattie in Ethan’s eyes. Mattie is a manipulator that dragged Ethan into his predicament and...
...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.
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.
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 Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan, a reserved young man was torn between two women. He was married to Zenobia Frome, but his true love was his wife’s cousin, Mattie Silver. Zeena and Mattie were different in all aspects. Mattie was a caring, loving, beautiful young girl, while Zeena was a sickly, shrewish woman aged well beyond her years. Ethan was continuously drawn to Mattie throughout the novel, as she was much more attractive and amicable than Zeena.
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.
His isolation manifests itself throughout the book with either characters speaking about him, or through depictions of the author, Edith Wharton. One example where this unveils itself is when Harmon, who develops a lot of the town gossip, speculates on the cause of Ethan Frome 's ruined and prematurely aged appearance. He speaks about Ethan saying, “Guess he 's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away” (Wharton 6). His remark expresses the theme of the landscape 's shaping of character and fate. This describes the theme of isolation as it says that Ethan has been in Starkfield too long, and is essentially isolated. Here, it becomes apparent that through his stay in Starkfield, an ironically stark place, he transforms into an isolated human being. Another way in which Ethan’s isolation becomes apparent occurs in the prologue, where Wharton describes Ethan in comparison to the setting of the book. Wharton exclaims he represents “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… in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access” (Wharton 14). The book takes place in the fictional place of Starkfield,
Only the ruthlessly devoted and heartless can make it to the top without feeling bad about who they knocked down to triumph. Ethan cant strive for a higher level of happiness because so many factors pull him down. To leave Starkfield with his love, Mattie, he would need more money than he can afford, and to get this he would be forced to lie and compromise his friendships. Ethan decides not to lie about a loan from the Hales, and in this decision he proves he cannot let go of his morals, because that would make him more miserable than he was to begin with. His conscience holds him back even more, as he is constantly reminded of what would become of Zeena if she was left alone to care for herself. His inescapable fate is foreshadowed by the gravestones that lie on his property, which echo the lifestyle he is obligated to live with Zeena in Starkf...
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
The descriptions in Ethan Frome are one of the most enjoyable aspects of the story. The walk that Ethan and Mattie take in the snow at night is beautiful and if you have ever experienced a night walk on a country road with stars and the moon lighting the way, reading the description of this one will bring memories of it back:
Mattie Silver’s presence in Starkfield precipitates into another obstacle that Ethan must overcome. Ethan feels disconnected to Zeena, but nonetheless, it is his responsibility to stay faithful to his wife. Along comes Mattie, a young fresh and beautiful distraction that sparks Ethan’s interest instantly. In the novel, Ethan ultimately becomes reckless with his affection for Mattie. Wharton writes, “He became suddenly conscious that he was looking at Mattie while Zeena talked to him, and with an effort he turned his eyes to his wife” (Page 57). Ethan is completely distracted by Mattie, even in mid conversation with his wife, Zeena. As a spouse who has taken vows, Ethan should be faithful to Zeena, yet he is enamored with his desire for Mattie. Ethan’s attraction to Mattie is a major obstacle that he has to overcome in order to have a loving marriage with Zeena, yet he is incapable of controlling his desires. Allowing himself to fall for another leads to the disintegration of his marriage, after all, he has chosen to pursue another relationship. Ethan must overcome his feelings for Mattie in order for his marriage to thrive, but he fails to overcome his challenging emotions, thereby ruining any chance at hope for a loving union with