When I first knew I had to read a novel named Ethan Frome, I, without reading the back cover, suspected that it would be a boring biography of some historical and adventurous man of whom I would never head about outside of literature class. I was worried that I would have my usually difficult time getting involved with this book. However, I was pleasantly surprised that my interest began to grow as soon as page five.
The first feeling I get from Ethan Frome is a sense of cold isolation. The cover of my version of the book is a blurred picture of a dark house surrounded with twig-like trees, cold and empty snow and a burnt sandy colored sky. The vision especially affected me because my moods are influenced by weather and surroundings. For example, I am my happiest when the sky has that distinctive clarity to it–the kind where there is no barrier of hazy fog between the air we breathe and that deep frosty blue color. Therefore, seeing such a dark world with no blue sky puts my mind in a dismal type of mode. I despise winter; the novel takes place in that season. I also get a sense of death and extinction. A few examples are the “exanimate” remnants of Ethan’s sawmill and the dead vines on the farmhouse’s front porch. The town’s name “Starkfield,” says it all. I am beginning to think that the winter setting is just a parallel for Ethan, considering all the darkness and hardship he has supposedly gone through.
I believe...
Tale of the Living Dead Ethan Frome, by Edith Warton is truly a tale of the “living dead”. Don’t be confused by the way this term is used in movies, where the living dead are corpses that rise from the ground. In this case, the term “living dead” refers to a person who is physically alive but emotionally dead. In the novel, Ethan Frome, all three main characters are emotionally dead. The characters have been emotionally dead since the "smash-up" in which Ethan and Mattie crashed their sled into a tree.
When Harmon states that Ethan has been in the town of Starkfield too many winters leads to the narrator finding out that Starkfield and the town members become emotionally buried under the snow covered blanket of Starkfield?s winters. Winter in Starkfield is depressing and cold and it seems to rub off on the residents of the town. People of the town say he is cold and depressing, simply because he has been in Starkfield too many winters.
She states that, “In many instances, anti-immigrant racism today camouflages itself and goes mainline in self-presentation, which is precisely my point about Ethan Frome.” Ammon’s strongly advocates the stance that it is vital for racism in Ethan Frome and similar works to be revealed and thoroughly examined as it is this literature that unmasks the extent of white anxieties in the United States. Bernard, in a stark contrast, proposes that the heart of the novel is the weakness of Frome’s character as well as his “negation of life.” He argues that the language usage in Ethan Frome is unparalleled and allows the reader to closely read and understand the point of Wharton’s work. In order to make this understanding easier on the audience, Bernard breaks down the complex ideas and symbols represented in Ethan Frome into simple, easy to digest concepts. Step-by-step, he goes through Wharton’s integration of symbolism and imagery, two elements of fiction, and the motives behind their usage. Through his breakdown of symbolism and imagery into three components, he provides a clearer insight into the mind of Wharton and the purpose of her work, while Ammons solely focuses on the racism in Ethan Frome. Although she dissects the novel as well, she also supports her analysis using previous works authored by Wharton to prove the racist perspective of Ethan Frome. This is evident as it is present in
Ethan Frome, a novella written by Edith Wharton, communicates a story of Ethan and his life living with his ill wife, Zeena, when a new lover comes into his home. Ethan and Zeena live in a place called Starkfield, a cold and lonely location situated in the New England area. Mattie comes into Ethan’s life to help her cousin, Zeena, around the house as her sickness has obstructed her ability to do housework. This causes problems for Ethan because he starts to fall in love with Mattie as she stays with the Fromes. The isolation of Starkfield prevents Ethan from living his life the way he wanted to. That causes Ethan to abandon his dreams of college and moving away from Starkfield. Ethan becomes hindered by the isolation of Starkfield because of
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".
In Ethan Frome, the theme of winter is predominantly used, with its confining nature, to portray each character’s hardships. For example, the theme of winter is directly linked with Ethan Frome and the harsh conditions he has to endure to survive. To Ethan, the wintry snow in Starkfield seems elegant and appealing, but as he sees later on, the snow is unveiled as a major obstacle, preventing Ethan from achieving his dreams. Winter manifests itself as the ice, cold, and snow symbolically representing the isolation that Ethan experiences. As the narrator states “when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow… must have been in Ethan Frome's young manhood,” The solitude that winter brings causes Starkfield to
In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the protagonist Ethan Frome has an unusual personality. Along with this, Ethan’s motivations seem hidden. Ethan mainly associates with his wife Zeena and his young lover Mattie. The reason his social circle is limited is because the town has shunned him. The people have isolated him due to the decisions he has made. The story begins with the new town Reverend who forms a special interest in Ethan. Furthermore, the story goes back in time to explain why the town treats Ethan the way they do.
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.
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.
In the book “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton, Ethan, the main character in the book, experiences many episodes of isolation persuading him to escape from and cope with them with outlets of hope, only leading to a life of permanent isolation. The story depicts a classic ironic switch of roles and a triangle of unusual “love.” With many people coming and going, Ethan looks to rely on someone to relieve his isolation and communicate with, only setting him up for trouble.
The rise of Realism in 1855 was the time when farming began to industrialize, communication expanded through railroads, and Nationalism was yet again revived. On top of all these important transformations that have marked this period of time was the significance for literature with a new audience, new settings, and new characters. The novel, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is a magnificent example of literature from the Realistic period.
One might think sacrificing things in life would lead to simplicity and happiness. However, in the novel Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton, the character Ethan from shows that sacrifice can be heartbreaking and tragic. Ethan Frome sacrifices his figurative life, and happiness, as well as logic and reasoning for obligation to convey that love, is never enough.
In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, there is a prevalent conflict of class struggles. Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and their maid Mattie all live in extreme poverty. Wharton portrays them as miserable beings, seemingly always encompassed in misfortune. Wharton herself, however, lived a near opposite life compared to that of her characters. She was born into fortune; money was rarely a concern for her (Lee). Through a Marxist lens, one could argue that Edith Wharton, a woman of extreme wealth and privilege, would characterize lower, working class people such as the ones in Ethan Frome in an inaccurately dismal light. The consistent image of winter and coldness, typically associated with misery, in Ethan Frome foreshadows an unhappy ending for the
The denotative definition as per Definition of Intersectionality: On the Intersecting Nature of Privileges and Oppression is “ Intersectionality refers to the simultaneous experience of categorical and hierarchical classifications including but not limited to race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality. It also refers to the fact that what are often perceived as disparate forms of oppression, like racism, classism, sexism, and xenophobia, are actually mutually dependent and intersecting in nature, and together they compose a unified system of oppression.” The term was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw in a 1989 paper titled “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination