In many cases, the villain of a story is the malevolent character that actively complicates the life of the protagonist. But in some cases, the villain ruins the life of the protagonist in the background by sucking the protagonist dry of hope. Zenobia Pierce Frome from Edith Wharton's novel, Ethan Frome, is the passive villain. She ruins Ethan's life and shows her evil side by neglecting Ethan, complicating his life, and taking away everything Ethan holds dear.
Zeena's first weapon against Ethan is neglect. Ethan needs human interaction to function properly. But Zeena, being the villain she is, deliberately deprives Ethan of it. Wharton symbolizes Zeena's neglect with the pickle dish that was never used. When the cat shatters this pickle dish, Mattie cries, "[Zeena] never meant it should be seem not even when there was company; and [Mattie] had to get up on the stepladder to reach it down from the top shelf..." (63). Zeena has placed the red pickle dish, which represents love, passion, and marriage, where it is not easily accessible. Symbolically, Zeena stores away her love and marriage in the drawer, effectively freezing her marriage. Also, the cat, which represents Zeena, breaks the pickle dish. This implies that Zeena destroys all possible love and affection when they surface from oppression. Mattie also states that the pickle dish is never meant to be used, which means that Zeena's intention is to to neglect Ethan's thirst for love as long as she desires. Zeena also decides to neglect Ethan's desire for friends. Zeena knows that Ethan is able to carry himself because he has Mattie by his side. Zeena, being the villain she is, decides to neglect Ethan's desire for friend and expel Mattie. During her heated discussion with E...
... middle of paper ...
...arkfield. Ethan is able to endure because Mattie is by his side to support him. By taking Mattie away, Zeena is trying to cut the thread that connects Ethan to sanity and reason. When Zeena tries to take Mattie away from him, Ethan breaks down. He decides to take his own life than see Mattie go.
Zenobia Pierce Frome from Edith Wharton's novel, Ethan Frome, is a villain that sucks her victim dry. She destroys Ethan's hopes and dreams while simultaneously taking away his worldly goods. She reduces Ethan from a man with bright future into a ruin of a man that endures life that is worse than death. Zeena reaffirms that she is a villain by neglecting her husband, complicating his life, and taking away everything from him. Wharton, through Zeena, teaches that the villain does not always take the active role. She also teachers the readers to choose their wives carefully.
He could not get away from Zeena, nor run away with the girl he felt drawn to. There was no way Ethan could afford to get away even if he tried. Ethan could not afford to pay for himself to leave town, nor could he provide for the woman he desired. He also imagines life as if he were suddenly resolved from all the issues going on in his life. All the issues that went on, Ethan brought upon himself due to the way he managed his life.
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.
...ss for yourself because in the end, one will regret it. Ethan’s morals prevent him from leaving Starkfield to pursue and achieve his dreams. He cannot baffle the traditions of his town. After Zeena tries to "foist on him the cost of a servant", forcing Ethan to let go of Mattie, he chooses to “leave with Mattie”. However, he cannot go through with the plan because he cannot bear to leave Zeena alone with her sickness. He knows she would not be able to take care of herself and cannot afford her own medicine. It is inappropriate to leave his wife in this bad condition. Therefore Ethan chooses to live an unhappy life instead of deceive his family and friends. Wharton portrays that by following society’s standards they will lose their hope and end up living in misery. Ethan chose to embark the obstacles and in the end it ruined him to a life of unhappiness and failure.
Ethan Frome marries Zenobia (Zeena) after the death of his mother in "an unsuccessful attempt to escape the silence, isolation and loneliness of life" (Lawson, 71). But, after time, he finds his life again becoming silent, as it was with his mother. Their lack of communication is continually making the marriage more misera...
The antagonist in the story is Abner Snobes. Abner Snobes is a very angry and inconsiderate man who has hate and detestation for almost anybody who is not “blood-kin”, and he portrays that hatred and contempt throughout the story (qtd. In Volpe 163).
Has a Story ever made a reader want to hurt the character responsible for trouble that’s being caused? Of course; usually the antagonist is often the nuisance. Richard Connell creates these instigative characters with pleasure and diversity. In his story “The Most Dangerous Game”, He Creates General Zaroff so that he is easy to hold a grudge against. Likewise Edgar Allan Poe Creates a character that is easy to hate. In his short story “The Cask of Amontillado”, Poe creates a mastermind killer. Connells antagonist, General Zaroff, and Poe’s antagonist, Montresor, give the reader an invitation to hate them. These two characters are similar yet different in their evil persona, wealth, and challenge.
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...
Ethan's death allows his parents to re-evaluate their lives. Macon realizes that he has no coped with the death of his son and he has turned to isolation for ...
The antagonist is “The Misfit”. He is never identified by his real name. He is an escaped convict who is curious, unsure, and believes he is not a bad person. By his actions, the reader can assume that he does not enjoy killing the family, but feels more obligated to do so.
In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Zeena makes the mistake of taking Mattie in instead of hiring a girl from the start. This one issue, sparks the feelings between Mattie and Ethan, causes the smash up and ruins Ethan’s chances of living a life outside Starkfield. Due to Zeena’s choices, Mattie and Ethan are left with the constant reminder of their attempted suicide attempt.
In both Ann Petry’s “Like a Winding Sheet” and Kate Chopin’s “Desiree’s Baby” the protagonist is also the antagonist. In the story, Like a Winding Sheet its Mae’s husband, Johnson, and in the story Desiree’s Baby it’s Desiree’s husband, Armand. In the beginning of both stories their husband seem to be loving, caring husbands who would never hurt their family. Then, the stories turn in a twist when the husband became insolent and angry toward their wives, but they were feeling furious towards themselves. Johnson was repeatedly getting abused from the outside world and in his mind and he starts to espouse a dismissive image that turned to anger against his wife and eventually he kills her. Armand was angry at his wife because his son turned out
Since he can't act effectively enough to change the outcome of his life, he gives himself over to dream and wandering off in fantasy land. Fantasies turn into the main outlet for his expectations. When he comes back with Mattie to the farmhouse, he sees a dead vine dangling from the entryway attached to the entryway as if somebody inside has kicked the bucket down, he quotes in the event: "In the event that it was there for Zeena - ". His reaction is striking for its comparability to the impulses of kids, who are vulnerable to change their lives. Zeena too finds that marriage does not satisfy her desires as Ethan does not tune in, thus she has surrendered talking. The culprit is an image of the sexual and enthusiastic dissatisfaction of their
There are many literary works that contain villains who play an essential role in the development of the work as a whole. However, I believe that the ultimate villain of this kind is Iago in Shakespeare’s play, Othello. Through manipulation and scheming, he beguiles the other characters of the novel.
As difficult as it is for Ethan to be tied down emotionally by his wife, he has also lost his physical attributes as well. No longer does Ethan have the strength he once did making surviving at his isolated farm even more difficult (Bernard
Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon is main antagonist in The House of Seven Gables. An antagonist is character or characters that oppose protagonist who usually creates the problem. He was known by the major population as a man of noble character. However his relatives, Clifford, Hepizbah, and Phoebe Pncheon know him as a brutal, selfish, and greedy man. His “exceedingly pleasant countenance” (pg.86, Hawthorne) does not fool them instead they were filled with fear. They knew that their Uncle Judge...