Free Essays on Ethan Frome

PURPOSE: To examine the character of Zenobia Pierce in the novel â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton. AUDIENCE: Readers who have not read the book â€Å"Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction† and are interested in the character of Zenobia Pierce, Ethan Frome’s wife. THESIS: Zenobia Pierce represents a character that is bitter and cold, making everyone around her miserable. The Character of Zenobia Pierce in Wharton’s â€Å"Ethan Frome† Zenobia Pierce, known as Zeena throughout the novel â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton, is a very unhappy, bitter woman. Wharton seems to depict her ex-husband, Edward Wharton, through the remarkable details she uses to characterize Zeena. Zeena, Ethan Frome’s cousin, comes to help Ethan during his mother’s illness. She is a great relief to Ethan during this time. As Wharton remarks, â€Å"Zeena seemed to understand his case at a glance. She laughed at him for not knowing the simplest sick bed duties and told him to â€Å"go right along out† and leave her to see to things† (35). Zeena at this time is attractive, healthy, and fun for Ethan to be with. Then Ethan’s mother dies during the winter and Ethan can not bear the cold, harsh Massachusetts winter alone, so he asks Zeena to marry him. After Zeena’s marriage to Ethan, the relationship changes, as Zeena becomes silent. She goes to bed immediately after supper leaving Ethan without any companionship. Wharton describes the change â€Å"When she came to take care of his mother, she had seemed to Ethan like the very genius of health, but he soon saw that her skill as a nurse had been acquired by the absorbed observations for her own systems† (36). Throughout the entire story, Zeena is described as sickly. She is a hypochondriac who takes medicine and visits doctors all the time causing Ethan to become attracted to Mattie Silver, Zeena’s cousin and caretaker during her illnesses. What attraction Ethan has to Zeena ... Free Essays on Ethan Frome Free Essays on Ethan Frome Ethan Frome, the main character in the book entitled Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, has many complex problems going on at the same time. His family has died and he has a wife that is continually sick, and the only form of happiness he has is from his wife's cousin Mattie. This, however, at times proves to be hard because of Ethan's wifes interference. Nothing seems to be going in Ethan's favor. The main theme of the book is failure, and this is shown through marrying his wife, not being able to stand up to his wife, and his involvement concerning the "smash up." The first way failure is shown in the book is through the marriage of Ethan and his wife. He married her because she had tried to help his mother recover from an illness, and once his mother died he could not bear the thought of living in the house alone. His wife was seven years his senior and always seemed to have some kind of illness. It seemed all she ever did was complain, and he resented this because it stifled his growing soul. Since his wife was continuously ill, and her cousin needed a place to stay, they took her in to help around the house. Ethan took an immediate propensity to her cousin, Mattie, because she brought a bright light upon his dismal day. He seemed to have found someone that cared for him, was always happy and could share his youth, unlike his sickly wife who always nagged him. He longed to be with Mattie, however he had loyalty to his wife. Being married to the wrong person proved to be Ethan's first failure. Ethan's second failure was not being able to stand up against his wife. His wife claimed that a new doctor said that she was extremely sick, and needed more help around the house. She told him without any discussion that Mattie had to go. Ethan could not find the words to make her alter her decision. His wife also decided that Mattie had to leave the next day itself and Ethan could not do anything about it. It was stated in the book that hi... Free Essays on Ethan Frome Ethan Frome Critical Lens Thorton Wilder believes, â€Å"Most writers firmly guide their readers to what they should think about the characters and events.† This means the author helps you to understand what his message is. I agree with this statement. Edith Wharton applies this declaration in her novel, Ethan Frome. She as the author, steers the readers to what he or she thinks about the characters and events by using certain literary elements. Such techniques used are characterization, setting, symbolism, irony, and imaging. These methods help us as the reader, to form an opinion about characters that Edith Wharton has created. It is difficult as the reader, to form an attitude for a character in a novel without the author using characterization. Edith Wharton does a marvelous job in illuminating for us, the main character, Ethan Frome. His appearance is constantly depicted throughout the tale. It is altered when interacting with the many unique people that Edith Wharton has created. This is an insight to what Ethan feels for these human beings. In the prologue of this novel, he is seen at the Starksfield post office by a curious and unaccustomed newcomer to the town. Through him, he is described as a â€Å"ruin of a man.† He drags his leg and looks old, as though he were â€Å"dead in hell.† Ethan is â€Å"a part of mute melancholy landscape.† He is quiet, voiceless, and has no communication with anyone or anything. This is the one side of Ethan that we first meet. The stiff, elderly, and unsociable man he has become, due to an untimely â€Å"smash up†, convinces read ers that he may have not always been like this. Up until Ethan meets a young vibrant girl name Mattie Silver, Ethan is the old man he is destined to become. Even as a young man he had a hard time with people. In college they called him â€Å"Old Stiff,† and he kept largely to himself. Despite all these negative attributes, Ethan was intelligent and info... Free Essays on Ethan Frome In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton draws many parallels between the plot of the novel and its setting. The setting of a cold and gloomy winter makes for an inevitably cold and gloomy plot. Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie all contribute to the gloominess of this plot by either making it worse, or having the chance to improve their circumstances and not taking it. Ethan Frome, a New England farmer, is a very complex, sensitive, and emotional man, yet no one besides the reader is let in on this little secret. He feels a great deal of love towards Mattie, and a great deal of hate towards Zeena, but these feelings are unknown to the women because he cannot express them. Like most men, Ethan is afraid to express his feelings to anyone, and because of this problem, he and Mattie end up crippled and in a constant state of misery, while the one from whom they are trying to escape ends up as their caretaker. Ethan's feelings are like the sun that does not shine during this gloomy winter. And had this sun shone down on the trio, they could have ended up in a much better state than they did. Perhaps Mattie and Ethan wouldn't have felt that a double suicide was their only way out, and maybe (but probably not) Zeena would have understood that Ethan never loved her, and that it was a one-sided marriage from the beginning. Zeena is a mean, bitter, hypochondriac who has nothing better to do with her time than to make her husband's life a living hell. Actually, she has better things to do with her time, but she's a hypochondriac, so she always has an excuse for why she can't. She shows no sensitivity towards anyone other than herself. Even when she realizes that Ethan loves Mattie, instead of her, she shows no sensitivity towards the couple, and instead ruins the fate of them and herself by trying to send Mattie away. Zeena is much like the bitter winter that shows no sympathy to the rest of the world. She has a bad attitude about life, and she need... Free Essays on Ethan Frome In many stories written about or during the 1800’s, it is not uncommon to see serving people as characters. During this era, young girls were often brought into households to tend to the â€Å"dirty work† that their masters were too proud or too frail to do themselves. As a result of being servants, these girls were looked down upon and often not even seen as people. Serving was nothing less than degrading. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, Mattie Silver breaks all the rules about how hired people are seen, how they act and how they are treated. It is true that she comes into her situation with all the qualities of a stereotypical maid; but by looking at the way Ethan regards Mattie, the way Mattie sees herself, and through the twist at the end, it is clear to see how Mattie defies the norm. As soon as Mattie settles into Starkfield, she ignites a spark of youthful exuberance in the dreary town. Once Ethan finds himself preoccupied with love for Mattie, all expectations of her to become a mere humble maid are abolished. Because Ethan is unable to communicate his feelings to Mattie, his heart is clouded with pent up adoration that brings him to do anything for the girl. Zeena often expresses her disappointment in the quality of Mattie’s housework. Ethan â€Å"...did his best to supplement her unskilled efforts, getting up earlier than usual to light the kitchen fire, carrying in the wood overnight, and neglecting the mill for the farm that he might help her about the house during the day. He even crept down on Saturday nights to scrub the kitchen floor after the women had gone to bed...† (32). It is unheard of for a master to act in such a way to please his servant. One can conceive that Ethan would hardly do such a thing for his own wife, who is si ck. â€Å"All his life was lived in the sight and sound of Mattie Silver, and he could no longer conceive of its being otherwise† (35). Ethan’s uses the fact of Mat... Free Essays on Ethan Frome PURPOSE: To examine the character of Zenobia Pierce in the novel â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton. AUDIENCE: Readers who have not read the book â€Å"Ethan Frome and Other Short Fiction† and are interested in the character of Zenobia Pierce, Ethan Frome’s wife. THESIS: Zenobia Pierce represents a character that is bitter and cold, making everyone around her miserable. The Character of Zenobia Pierce in Wharton’s â€Å"Ethan Frome† Zenobia Pierce, known as Zeena throughout the novel â€Å"Ethan Frome† by Edith Wharton, is a very unhappy, bitter woman. Wharton seems to depict her ex-husband, Edward Wharton, through the remarkable details she uses to characterize Zeena. Zeena, Ethan Frome’s cousin, comes to help Ethan during his mother’s illness. She is a great relief to Ethan during this time. As Wharton remarks, â€Å"Zeena seemed to understand his case at a glance. She laughed at him for not knowing the simplest sick bed duties and told him to â€Å"go right along out† and leave her to see to things† (35). Zeena at this time is attractive, healthy, and fun for Ethan to be with. Then Ethan’s mother dies during the winter and Ethan can not bear the cold, harsh Massachusetts winter alone, so he asks Zeena to marry him. After Zeena’s marriage to Ethan, the relationship changes, as Zeena becomes silent. She goes to bed immediately after supper leaving Ethan without any companionship. Wharton describes the change â€Å"When she came to take care of his mother, she had seemed to Ethan like the very genius of health, but he soon saw that her skill as a nurse had been acquired by the absorbed observations for her own systems† (36). Throughout the entire story, Zeena is described as sickly. She is a hypochondriac who takes medicine and visits doctors all the time causing Ethan to become attracted to Mattie Silver, Zeena’s cousin and caretaker during her illnesses. What attraction Ethan has to Zeena ... Free Essays on Ethan Frome Ethan Frome The main character in the book entitled Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is in fact Ethan Frome who has many complex problems going on at the same time. Ethan’s family has died which is taking it’s toile on Ethan. Plus his wife is always sick and nagging Ethan. The only escape that he seems to get is with his wife’s cousin Mattie. This, however, at times proves to be hard because of Ethan's wife’s interference. Nothing seems to be going in Ethan's favor. The main theme of this book is failure, and this is shown through marrying his wife. The first way failure is shown in the book is through the marriage of Ethan and his wife. He married her because she had tried to help his mother recover from an illness, and once his mother died he could not bear the thought of living in the house alone. His wife was seven years his older and always seemed to have some kind of illness. It seemed all she ever did was complain, and he resented this because it stifled his growing soul. Since his wife was continuously ill, and her cousin needed a place to stay, they took her in to help around the house. Ethan took an immediate liking to her cousin, Mattie, because she brought a bright light upon his dismal day. He seemed to have found someone that cared for him, was always happy and could share his youth, unlike his sickly wife who always nagged him. He longed to be with Mattie; however he had loyalty to his wife. Being married to the wrong person proved to be Ethan's first failure. Ethan's second failure was not being able to stand up against his wife. His wife claimed that a new doctor said that she was extremely sick, and needed more help around the house. She told him without any discussion that Mattie had to go. Ethan could not find the words to make her alter her decision. His wife also decided that Mattie had to leave the next day itself and Ethan could not do anything about it. It was stated in the book that his wife had ... Free Essays on Ethan Frome Ethan Frome was considered by many to be Edith Wharton’s finest novel. This dismal and depressing tale of tragedy and hopelessness won her great acclaim as an author. Wharton engaged the reader with her usage of a clear theme, literary devices, and fascinating characters. The end result of her work on the novel is a tale of such sadness and despondency that emotional readers are overwhelmed. Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a wealthy family involved in New York City society. Her career began with her use of clever satire to demean her New York society. Her reputation and place in history as a novelist was established beyond a doubt with the publication of The House of Mirth in 1905. (another satire) In 1911, Wharton wrote her finest novel Ethan From while in France with her husband Edward. Wharton spent the remainder of her life in France, but still involved her writing with subjects about America. Her last novel Bunner Sisters was published in 1909, and Edith Wharton passed away in 1937. Wharton was a writer of the twentieth century. Therefore, her ideas went along with those of other American writers of that time period. Wharton, like such successful writers as Faulkner and Fitzgerald, concentrated on the immense new subject of American values. She did not follow the pattern of writing about European topics and pursuits in the novel Ethan Frome. This novel was a perfect example of the writer’s examination of America’s new set of cultural boundaries and morals the twentieth century’s arrival entailed. The setting of the novel Ethan Frome was notably important to the formation of this novel’s plot. The novel was technically set in the small town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Emotionally this novel took place in frozen isolation. The main character in this novel stood out because of his pathetic life and depressed outlook. One character joked that his condition was brought on by â€Å"to many winters in Starkfield†. That ... Free Essays on Ethan Frome Poems relate to many people in society. Two poems that relate to a character in a novel are â€Å"Desert Places† by Robert Frost and â€Å"Mirage† by Christina Rossetti; they relate to the main character, Ethan Frome, in the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. In the poem â€Å"Desert Places,† Robert Frost portrays snow falling down to the point where all you can see is bright white with a little bit of shrubs and weeds sticking out of the ground. He describes the frozen desert very vividly. In one of the stanzas Robert Frost says, â€Å"All animals are smothered in their lairs.† The word â€Å"smothered† can relate to the feelings of Ethan Frome. Ethan is smothered in a way by his duties and missions in Starkfield, and can’t do what he truly wants to do. Moreover, the setting of the poem is also much like the setting of Ethan Frome. It was a harsh and bitter winter in which the town of Starkfield is covered entirely with snow with some weeds stick out the ground. Another fact that is noteworthy would be that like the animals from Robert Frosts, â€Å"Desert Places,† were just as trapped in their lairs as the people in Ethan From were trapped in Starkfield. In the poem â€Å"Mirage,† Christina Rosetti talks about her hopes of her dream and that she is now awakened, and she knows that her dream can not be accomplished. In the third line of her poem she says, â€Å"Exceeding comfortless, and worn and old.† This line, along with the theme of theme of this poem, can go along with the themes of Ethan Frome. Ethan had a dream. His dream was to leave Starkfield and live a happy life with Mattie. However, this dream did not come true. Instead, it led to disaster, heartache, and pain. He was himself caught up in a real life dream in which he was awakened by catastrophe. The line from the poem can somewhat show the state that Ethan is in many years after his dream has been traumatized. He is now â€Å"comfortless, worn, and old.† He has given up...