"Ethan Frome," by Edith Wharton, is a short, but beautiful, novel about a poor farmer who lives in New England with his sad and angry wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie. .
Ethan married Zeena out of a sense of obligation because she had cared for his ailing mother. The marriage isn't a happy one, with Zeena distant and cold, and Ethan feeling uncomfortable in his own home. When Zeena becomes ill, she sends for her younger cousin, Mattie, to come live at the Frome farm to help her take care of Ethan and the home while she get well. Mattie had lost everything, including a place to live, so Zeena extended a hand to her in the hopes that they could help each other through their difficulties.
Zeena, in a possible bout of hypochondria, believed that she was very ill, overcome with "nearly every illness there is." Grief stricken that she would suffer, housebound through the long Massachusetts winter, Frome does as much as he can to cheer her up and remain a good husband. Mattie pitched in and tried to do as much work as possible in order to please Zeena, but she wasn't a good housekeeper and was rather clumsy. This frustrated Zeena, who had expected her cousin to be a help, not a hindrance. Mattie was fearful that Zeena would send her away, and Zeena, in her typical fashion, did nothing to ease Mattie's anxieties.
Once winter was over and spring had arrived, Zeena ended up getting better and healthier. Also Ethan ended up show affection towards her. They ended up falling in love and Zeena had some sort of an idea of it and wanted her to leave. But once she is about to leave Ethan and Mattie try to go for a slay ride and where trying to kill themselves, but at the last minute Ethan had a flash of his wifes face in his head before the crash and he tried to get out of the way of the crash with the tree. Even though Ethan and Mattie didn't die they both ended up being paralyzed, and Ethan had to end up taking care of both his wife and Mattie.
Ethan Frome was considered by many to be Edith Wharton's finest novel. ... Edith Wharton was born in 1862 to a wealthy family involved in New York City society. ... Her last novel Bunner Sisters was published in 1909, and Edith Wharton passed away in 1937. ... Ethan Frome never had an easy life. ... Ethan Frome was a very symbolic novel. ...
Edith Wharton applies this declaration in her novel, Ethan Frome. ... These methods help us as the reader, to form an opinion about characters that Edith Wharton has created. ... Edith Wharton does a marvelous job in illuminating for us, the main character, Ethan Frome. ... It is altered when interacting with the many unique people that Edith Wharton has created. ... Edith Wharton makes the readers want to cringe while reading about her. ...
Loveless Winters: A Book Review of Ethan Frome "Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters. ... In Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome, winter is personified as an evil that traps citizens into the dark and gloomy wintry Starkfield. ... Edith Wharton begins this tragic tale of heartbreak and loneliness by introducing a "bleak and unapproachable- (1) Frome. ... Edith Wharton wants the reader to feel empathy for the characters and this is the technique that she uses to make her novel triumphant. ... Ethan Frome appeals to those that can relate to heartache and hardships. ...
The Colors of Ethan Frome Ethan Frome himself is not colorful at all. ... Edith Wharton wrote Ethan Frome to juxtapose what people thought about rural northeastern life. ... But, Edith Wharton twists their fate one more time so that both live, but are crippled both physically and mentally. ... In Conclusion, Edith Wharton used colors many times to shadow the essence and feelings of the characters. ... In the end, Edith Wharton creates a scenario that is truly worse than death and makes the reader want to live their life a little harder....
The novel "Ethan Frome", written by Edith Wharton in 1911 depicts the life of the living dead; the life of Ethan Frome. ... Set in the cold, desolate town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, the narrator introduces us to Ethan Frome, a man who had been injured in a horrific "smash-up" 23 years ago. ... Wharton personifies the house cat as Zeena when her body is unavailable. ... But if that were the case, how could a ny combination of obstacles have hindered the flight of a man like Ethan Frome?" ... Wharton juxtaposes the trains freedom alongside its feeling of confinement. ...
Wharton was born Edith Jones in 1862, into an upper class New York City family. ... Edith Wharton finally divorced her husband in 1913, but never relinquished his last name. ... Ethan Frome, perhaps Wharton's most well known work, was published in 1911. Unlike most of Wharton's other writings, Ethan Frome's setting was not in an upper class suburban atmosphere, but a desolate wintry village in Massachusetts. ... The characters in Ethan Frome mirrored Wharton herself, particularly Zenobia Frome, the unloved wife of a burly farmer. ...
The characters of Ethan Frome are negatively affected physically, psychologically and symbolically by winter setting that the author deliberately displays in this novel. The author, Edith Wharton, masterfully describes the geography and weather, to set the tone and mental conditions of the main characters. ... From the beginning pages of Ethan Frome, it is clear that there are physical effects from the environment that characters live in. ... Ethan Frome is not the only one who was affected by Starkfield's winter wonderland. ... Edith Wharton is able to add the psychological elements ...
Title: Ethan Frome II. Author: Edith Wharton III. ... Point of view of narration: The narrator is a person talking about Ethan Frome. ... Main characters and brief description: A: Ethan Frome- Ethan is the protagonist of the story. ... Throughout the novel, Edith Wharton describes the spiraling hopelessness of poverty, isolation, and personality flaws eventually defeat Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena. ...
"Fairy tail in Ethan Frome" Some novels although they may not be intended to be, may in fact read like a fairy tail. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, is one of those novels. ... One of the most important events in Ethan Frome, which noticeably portrays that of Snow White, is when Zeena's cat interrupts the deep conversation between Mattie and Ethan. ... As seen in Ethan Frome, "Frome was in the habit of walking into starkfield to fetch home with wife's cousin, Mattie Silver." (28) Wharton seems to have related the name Mattie Silver, to that of the fairytale character Snow...
