The Cold Nature Of Ethan Frome

With bountiful snowfall and harsh winters, Edith Wharton establishes an inhospitable setting for her piece of literature, Ethan Frome, which gives the book a frigid and depressing atmosphere. The cold nature of the book explains the protagonist’s, Ethan Frome’s, need to search for companionship in other people. The fear of existing alone and forgotten in the gelid winter appears to be too much to bear for Ethan Frome. He pounces on the first opportunity that arises and marries his mother’s caretaker, Zenobia. All appears to be well in Ethan’s eyes. However, unbeknownst to Ethan at the time, his attempt to overcome loneliness fails. Ethan will soon learn that loneliness can only be cured by the quality of companions, not the quantity.
Setting …show more content…
Ethan witnessed his mother slowly deteriorate, mentally and physically, from loneliness, and hoped not to end up like her. Had Wharton chosen a different, more pleasant season as the setting for her literary work, Ethan might not have felt as much pressure to find a companion, for warmer seasons symbolize youth, happiness, and rebirth. The endless snowfall and bitter cold signify confinement, isolation, and death. The negative feelings the winter season brought upon Ethan forced him to marry quickly out of fear of dying alone and isolated on his empty, glacial land.
Ethan’s need to shatter the wall of loneliness that encircled him pushed him to hastily marry the dreary hypochondriac, Zenobia; Ethan quickly falls back into a lonesome state as he uncovers that Zenobia (also referred to as Zeena) lacks the quality of understanding that he yearns for in a relationship. Ethan had a fallacious understanding of how to solve his loneliness issue. He …show more content…
Mattie Silver, a hopeful and luminous soul, seemed to be the sun that would bring an end to Ethan’s dark days. Mattie’s bright and exuberant personality revived Ethan’s vitality that the cold Zeena and the frigid Starkfield winter’s had stolen away from him. Mattie had a curious mind that yearned for voluminous knowledge and information, and Ethan had a compound mind infused with worldly knowledge. Mattie and Ethan, two perfectly fitting puzzle pieces, complemented each other. “She had an eye to see and an ear to hear. He could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss…” (page 17). For most of his life, Ethan felt separated from everyone else because no one understood his thoughts and ideas, or even paid attention to them, not until Mattie. She fed into his crave for knowledge and showed Ethan the type of attention that he desired for most of his life. Ethan coveted for admiration from a female, and Mattie gave it to him. Ethan finally found his way out of the sea of silence; Mattie acted as his