Ethan Frome Naturalism Analysis

What You Sow

From as early as 408 B.C.E., iterations of the adage “misery loves company" have appeared in written texts. First attributed to Sophocles in Athens, this popular dictum has traveled far from Greece, and has found itself at the core of Ethan Frome. In Edith Wharton’s tragic novella Ethan Frome (1911), the suffering inflicted by the titular protagonist encompasses the key principles of Naturalism. Illustrating this, Ethan forces Zeena, his wife, to disengage from her environment and retreat into silence. Further, he recklessly pursues Mattie, Zeena’s exuberant cousin, and dulls the radiance that first attracted him. And as the final nail, Ethan cages himself in obligation, desperately rattling its bars, but never stepping past them.

To summarize, Ethan spawns collective anguish archetypal

of Naturalism.

Returning to the initial character, Zeena’s despair in a deteriorating marriage, eroded away by Ethan, prominently features the crucial aspects of Naturalism. In response to Ethan’s cruelty, Zeena withdraws socially and lingers in the shadows, an alien in her own home. In one passage, Zeena remarks on Ethan’s uncharacteristic primping, suspicious of its coincidence with Mattie’s arrival; she is enveloped by quietude as she waits for a response that never stirs the air. Complication reveals a nascent power disparity, which pertains to the Naturalist theme of oppression by hushing Zeena’s intuition with Ethan’s suppression of information. Concurrently, Ethan’s affair scorns Zeena, blistering her with a fire she only hears the crackling of in clandestine whispers and sees in dart-quick, longing glances. On a particular evening, Zeena is confined to the solitude of an empty home, while Ethan frolics about

Starkfield hand in hand with Mattie, only returning to taunt Zeena with his affair and spit on her with a meaningless apology. Despite Zeena’s apparent mistreatment, she is framed as the antagonist by Ethan to reassign blame, thereby exonerating him and reducing the gargantuan forces of environment and heredity to the size of a frail, gaunt shell of a woman. Last, Ethan cripples Zeena with the full weight of responsibility. In the conclusion, Zeena has become the caretaker of Ethan and Mattie, wearing the sleigh-ride in her weary eyes and labor-corroded frame. Her sacrifice and altruism, when juxtaposed with Ethan’s perpetual self-concern, embody the duality of humanity. Throughout the novella, anguish exaggerates this intrinsic polarity, among other Naturalist traits, strengthening Ethan Frome’s ties to the movement.