1911

Ethan Frome takes place during the winter in the town of Starkfield and surrounding rural areas. The harsh winter is crucial to the development of characters in the novel and also to overall theme. The winter causes the characters to become isolated and make decisions that they would not normally make. For example, Ethan and Mattie make a rash decision when they decide to commit suicide by sledding into a tree rather than choosing to face their problems. The narrator describes winter in the…

Independent Reading Quarter One Ethan Frome is a man with personal issues that come from his past experiences. The past experiences that he has faced have let a mark on him mentally that cannot be erased. From this stems his inner conflicts when it comes to desire and society. These inner personal conflicts can be connected as well with the main characters in the books “The Awakening” and “1984”. The internal conflicts that he faces in this novel are the direct result of society as it is in the…

The novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton has an extensive amount of imagery, many scenes are accompanied by descriptions of the bitter winter that encompasses the town. Even the name of the town that the characters inhabit, “Starkfield”, contributes to this imagery. In the novel, Ethan Frome is no longer in love with his wife, Zeena, but now yearns for her younger cousin, Mattie Silver. During the harsh winter that the main story takes place in, Mattie is a warm and comforting presence to Ethan in…

One of Ethan Frome’s centric ideas is that Ethan retreats from life into a vision. He escapes his reality to enjoy a few blissful moments in his dream, but never acts to make that dream come true. Harmon Gow says, “Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away.”(Wharton 6) While having every reason to leave Starkfield and his querulous wife, Ethan doesn’t. Ethan’s moral and social values combined with his indecisiveness causes Ethan to retreat from life into a…

The novella, Ethan Frome, was written by Edith Wharton depicting the story of love equipped with tragedy. Marxist criticism is predominant throughout the novella because of the unfulfilled desires or dreams of the characters on behalf of social circumstances. Poverty led to the end of Frome’s education, and Mattie being obligated to live in her cousin’s home. Fromes infatuation with Mattie Silver progressed and intensified daily, however, he was unable to convey his emotions because of his…

Have you ever felt dissatisfied and and imprisoned and suddenly feel happy, hopeful, and in love? That’s how Ethan felt in his marriage. Caged in, imprisoned,and unpleased.Tired of the same boring day to day miserable life and wife who shows no intimacy whatsoever. Yet Edith Wharton makes Ethan change throughout the book Ethan Frome when this woman named Mattie Silver the cousin of his unloving wife comes along. He feels like there is another chance for life to be happy again, then he changes…

The novel “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton is set in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts in the early 1900s. The story is told from a third person view of an engineer working a job at Corbury Junction and tells the story with a rather gloomy mood. Hard-working and young twenty-one-year-old Ethan Frome marries a slightly older twenty-eight-year-old Zeena Frome who watched over and cared for Ethan’s mother before she died. Following the death of his mother, Ethan desperately wanted to…

In Chapters VI - VIII in the novella Ethan Frome, both Ethan and Zeena make references to things or ideas they value most. The author Edith Wharton, utilizes these characters’ attachments to convey information about both Zeena and Ethan, as well as the couple’s relationship. While Ethan values meaningful companionship and connecting with the outside world, Zeena values her pickle dish and her cat. Edith Wharton uses symbolism to explore the detrimental effects of physical and emotional…

Running on Empty Ethan Palmer is a teenager living in Halifax, Nova Scotia with his father and sister. The death of his mother has caused Ethan’s personality to significantly change and resulted in him struggling throughout high school. To cope with his mother’s death, Ethan uses his passion for muscle cars to escape his reality and suppress his feelings of anger. Throughout the story, Ethan has several confrontations with his father regarding the direction of his life, crashes his car and…

One of Ethan Frome’s centric ideas is that Ethan retreats from life into a vision. He escapes his reality to enjoy a few blissful moments in his dream, but never acts to make that dream come true. Harmon Gow says, “Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away”(Wharton 6). While having every reason to leave Starkfield and his querulous wife, the man doesn’t. Ethan’s moral and social values combined with his indecisiveness cause him to retreat from life into a…