morals versus desire

Edith Wharton, author of Ethan Frome, successfully uses symbolism as a tactic to drive her intended themes home. One prominent theme throughout the novel is morals and conforming to societal standards conflicting with one’s desires that diverge from the status quo. Wharton’s symbols in Ethan Frome strongly support the theme of morals versus desire through emphasizing the gap between the two.

Initially, Wharton uses the red pickle dish to represent what is left of the love and vitality in Ethan and Zeena’s marriage; but after the dish has been broken by the cat, it symbolizes the destruction of their marriage. The cat destroying the dish is also significant because the cat represents Zeena's constant, foreboding presence inside the house. The cat being the one to blame for the breaking of the dish also means Zeena being the blame for the failure of the marriage, but in reality Ethan is to blame for the dish falling as the cat likely would not have knocked over the dish if his hand had not lingered on top of Mattie’s. Ethan’s feelings also begin to grow stronger for Mattie after the dish breaks because not only did it represent the marriage’s failure, but diminished the morals that come along with marriage. Eventually, Zeena finds the broken pieces of the dish that Ethan had hidden and though “her lips were twitching with anger” there was also “a flush of excitement on her sallow face” (109). Zeena expresses excitement because now it is not only her contributing to the failure of the marriage. But her anger shines through in the end despite her dissatisfaction in the relationship, because society’s reaction to the end of her marriage would be far more devastating than the emotional pain. The red pickle dish in itself represents t...

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... consists of only grey and white. His morality had never been shaken until Mattie had entered his life and Wharton took that into consideration when describing the setting. After Ethan’s accident though, society began to somewhat pity him because giving into his desires came with great consequences. “All the dwellers in Starkfield… had had troubles enough of their own to make them competitively indifferent to those of their neighbors… Ethan Frome’s had been beyond the common measure…”(10). This quote in particular demonstrates the slight sympathy that society had for Ethan, because even though each person has their own unique problems, society relates to battling with desire and observing the consequences that come from giving in to desire inhibits pity.

Works Cited

Wharton, Edith, and Edith Wharton. Ethan Frome ; & Summer. New York: Modern Library, 2001. Print.