Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome describes the tragic lives of three inhabitants of a New England town. It is told from a peculiar narrative perspective, however: the novel begins with an unnumbered chapter, told from the perspective of an unnamed first-person narrator. I hope to demonstrate that Wharton uses this narrator to illustrate a fact about Ethan Frome's tragedy, one which suggests that the larger story here has religious implications.
It is worth noting that, although Ethan Frome is a story about adulterous love, Wharton deliberately makes her narrator male. Orlene Murad suggests that this is because of resemblances between Frome's story and Edith Wharton's own autobiography: both were married to invalids, and therefore drawn to adulterous love. Wharton, however, did not suffer the fate that Ethan Frome does. This explains the paradox of the novel's construction: as Murad notes, the narrator "enters Ethan's mind, expresses Ethan's thoughts with more sophistication than Ethan could possibly be capable of, and reveals acts and ideas of Ethan's that no one in Starkfield could have known and have been the source of the narrator's information." (Murad 94). The question of an author's identification with the main character of the story is therefore relevant, especially because the story told here as tragedy is not unlike the real story of Edith Wharton's life.
This raises the question, however, of why Wharton should give the novel a tragic theme....
Although he was strong, with intellectual ambitions, Ethan could not bring himself to violate social conventions as a young man. Ethan's studies were left unfinished because of his familial obligations and he never resumed them. He felt resentful at times of Mattie's youthful exuberance, as if her carefree nature and the fact that she did not feel a need to worry about what others thought and said was a reproach
Ethan is now 'married' to Maggie, but not in the way he desired -- he now effectively has two wives who cannot love him or escape the family house, rather than three. The existence for all three is a miserable one, and the women suffer as much as Ethan as they battle amongst one another. The greatest humor of the novel is exhibited when Zeena is suddenly able to find
Ethan Frome The story of Ethan Frome is about a man in a small rural town at the turn of the twentieth century. At this time in American history, society was heavily structured and the things which were considered either morally acceptable or completely inappropriate were definite and there were serious repercussions for those who behaved in ways which were counter to society's order. Consequently, the pressure placed on people to
Ethan Frome and Summer In her long career, which stretched over forty years and included the publication of more than forty books, Edith Wharton (1862-1937) portrayed a fascinating segment of the American experience. During the span of her literary career as an author, she conceived stories of exceptional originality and depth. Especially well versed in illustrating tales about romantic irony and how cruel little twists of fate dramatically effect circumstances of
This is important, because it helps the reader to be able to identify and understand the emotions that main characters are feeling. As the use of these two elements are: illustrating the challenges that are being faced and the sense of frustration in not addressing them. At which point, these disappointments will affect the relationship that the different characters (throughout the novel) will have towards one another. (Wharton, 2009) What
Ethan becomes a caregiver, ironically, despite the weakness of his will, just like Mattie Silver, who ironically first joins the Frome household to care for Zeena becomes the physically weakest member of the household. Ethan's life is initially defined by the needs of his wife's body to the point where he becomes unnaturally submissive as a husband, just as the youthful Mattie unnaturally becomes the sickest member of the
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now