Archetypal Characters In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

In Ethan Frome, author Edith Wharton illustrates that archetypal images are prominent in her novel through the characters of Mattie and Zenna, who show the struggle of Ethan Frome and his hardship of a decision of picking a girl. Mattie, Ethan’s love interest, is representative of summer, hope, warmth and the love that she has for Ethan. On the contrary Zeena, Ethan’s wife, represents winter, cold, everlasting, desolation, and a only half alive state of mind and being. Both of these characters are more than meets the eyes and influential to Ethan Frome, who has both of these women as prominent characters in his life. Mattie and Zeena contradict each other’s characters in the way that Mattie brings Ethan a sense of communication as much as …show more content…
Zeena attributes the loss of her “health [to] nursing [Ethan’s] mother” (Wharton 98). She may have lost her health to the taking care of Ethan’s mother, but she lost her will and desire to live and not just survive on her own. She restricts Ethan from living a life that he desired and would have enjoyed, because he knew “she would have suffered a complete loss of identity” (Wharton 63), if he were to have gone and followed his dreams. Even though Zeena does not explicitly say that she does not want to move to a city, Ethan gives up on his dreams because he is looking out for her wellbeing due to the love that he has for her. Upon Ethan’s return to his home with Mattie he sees “A dead cucumber-vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death” (Wharton 45) and instantly thinks of Zeena in her half alive state. The instantaneous reaction of Ethan reveals his mental belief that Zeena is not fully alive and participating in the world. Contrastingly to Zeena is Mattie who brings a constant sense of being alive and euphoric to everything. So much so that it is said that “Every yard of the road was alive with Mattie’s presence, and there was hardly a branch… or tangle of brambles… which some bright shred of memory was not caught” (Wharton 121). Mattie’s infectious spirt and positive, alive outlook on life influences everything around her. Ethan saw her “hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth” (Wharton 29). The joy for life that Mattie possesses makes Ethan come alive as if being thawed from the frozen consistency of a Starkfield winter. Zeena and Mattie are apparent opposites on the fact of the amount of or lack thereof, of live they