Edith Bouvier Beale

Ethan’s desire to become an engineer ceases when he abandons his studies at Worcester in order to take care of his family. In Ethan’s younger years he takes a year’s course at a technological college at Worcester. While there, he experiments in the laboratory with friendly professors of physics. After his father’s death, Ethan has to “put a premature end to [his] studies,” to care for his sickly mother and manage the farm and saw-mill (24). Ethan’s mother falls ill of isolation of the house…

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…

Their purpose: entertain the men. The novel, The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton, contains several characters which represent the women of this time period well; one being Miss Lily Bart. Lily clearly understands her role of a woman. “Who wants a dingy woman? We are expected to be pretty and well-dressed till we drop- and…

Ethan Frome, a fiction novel written by Edith Wharton relies on the setting of Starkfield, Massachusets to shape its inhabitants’ lives, their behaviors, and decisions. Starkfield provides a cold, lonely, and dark, isolated atmosphere, allowing Wharton to portray the characters in the novel as miserable and feeling trapped. The characters’ lives become unwanted, broken records similar to the continuous and never changing setting and climate of Starkfield. The use of imagery illustrated in the…

that he is well supplied with it.” This quotation implies that there is a lot of wisdom or common knowledge to go around in the world, in order make a sound judgment; ironically it doesn 't always materialize, just as in the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. The main protagonist in this novel is Ethan Frome. He renders the impression of a man to be pitied because faith has dealt him with a bad hand. But, it could be argued that it is because of Ethane lack of common sense, faith itself…

Biography Edith Wharton was born in to a society of aristocrats who accurately represented “old” New York; her family was wealthy, intellectual, and rigidly conventional (Bruce). She was educated by tutors and governesses about proper manners, dress, and lifestyle. She was expected to excel in her aristocratic society and was not allowed to read literature—a rule that she broke frequently by obtaining classics from her father’s bookshelves. Her childhood ended with her father’s death in March…

someone who knew nothing of New England!” This quote was said by a critic who has read the novel “Ethan Frome.” The novel contains the aspects of love, hatred, and poverty throughout the novel. “Ethan Frome” was written by Edith Wharton and was written to practice the work of realism. Edith Wharton makes this novel as real as it could possibly get with the love affair between Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver, the hatred relationship of Zeena Frome and Mattie, and the lack of money and wealth in…

revolutionized the role of women at home. Although some may see marriage as a mutual relationship, many would see it as a prison. Many problems arise from the incompatibility of the significant others and is usually fueled by their distinct personalities. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, Wharton exemplifies a red pickle dish as a fragile object that is reminiscent of the vulnerable relationships which leads to the eventual demise of the Fromes. One may imagine that a simple pickle dish…

morals, selflessness for others own needs, or even just out of fear from what they want or desire being wrong. Edith Wharton once said, “The worst of doing one 's duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else,” which means that doing something or a task for someone else might cause the other person from doing what they truly want. In the story of Ethan Frome, the author Edith Wharton, tells the story of Ethan who falls in love with his wife’s cousin, Mattie, but he’s…