Free Will And Determinism In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

Free Will and Determinism In Edith Wharton’s book Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan, struggles every day with decisions that are predetermined or made through the use of free will. Free will and determinism play a key role in deciding whether to abandon his current wife or not, which is his main internal struggle. Mattie Silver, who has come to take care of Zeena, falls in love with Ethan but feels wrong in doing so because Zeena is her cousin. Ethan loves her back but also feels bad about having a secret relationship with Mattie. They both have free will to run off and abandon Zeena but are predetermined to stay in Starkfield with her forever. In the real world, there is controversy about people having free will or determinism, and research

Some intellectuals believe that we only have free will and that it is our only way of decision-making in life. The definition of free will is “...the idea that we make choices and have thoughts independent of anything remotely resembling a physical process” (Nahmias). So, in turn, the action of turning a key, catching a ball, or playing the piano require mental processing and therefore, free will. In addition, free will improves people’s performances. According to Dr. Vohs, free will can guide people’s choices to being better performers and leads to healthy and wealthy life outcomes (Tierney). In the book Ethan Frome, Ethan has free will to leave Zeena and contemplates whether he should abandon her or not. In chapter eight, while wondering what he should do, Ethan thinks to himself, “Why should [I] not with Mattie the next day, instead of letting her go alone?” (97). This thought is purely his own decision to either go with Mattie or to stay home while she leaves to the train station, which exercises his free will. Ethan plans to take Mattie to the train station, but they take a long detour and visit nostalgic places across the countryside. When they are sledding down a hill on the outskirts of Starkfield, Mattie and Ethan decide that if they cannot be together, they would rather commit suicide. When they are sledding down the hill, Mattie tells Ethan she wants him to take her down

Also, people argue that in the real world, everything that we do is predetermined and our actions do not affect what happens in the future. The definition of predestination is “...the philosophical idea that every event or state of affairs, including every human decision and action, is the inevitable and necessary consequence of antecedent states of affairs” (“Pre-Determinism”). According to several scientists and researchers, in life “there is no freedom of choice, no free will” (Nahmias). In Ethan Frome, Ethan is predetermined to stay in Starkfield forever. In fact, the whole book is predetermined because it has been set by the author. In the prologue, Harmon Gow says that Ethan has lived in Starkfield for too long and that most of the smart people leave (5). This means that Ethan is predetermined to live in Starkfield for eternity because every attempt he tries to leave the town fails. Suicide, leaving with Mattie to the train station and trying to leave the city all fail in Ethan’s attempts. In life, not all things are predetermined or have free will. Physicists and scientists alike have proven that not all objects have free will. For example, pool balls will not have free will in the way they roll around the table because we cannot control laws of physics (Crabtree). Physics are predetermined by physical forces beyond our control and the pool balls themselves cannot