Edith Cowan

In her realist novel, Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton strategically crafts a story that highlights the contrast between two opposing archetypal images, winter and darkness versus summer and light, in order to draw forth a comparison between the effect that both Zeena, Ethan’s wife, and Mattie, Ethan’s love interest, have on Ethan. Zeena’s stark personality and depressive aura causes her to exemplify the desolate qualities of winter, dragging Ethan into a life classified by lonely days and even…

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…

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and Willa Cather’s A Lost Lady, the difficulty of obtaining the highly sought after “American Dream” is examined through the struggles of the characters in each respective novel. Wharton and Cather grapple with the American Dream as the set piece for a tragedy, in which they use different approaches to highlight the elusiveness and fragility of the idealized state of the American Dream. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton aims to idealize the American Dream through…

Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, takes place in the fictional, small town of Starkfield. The novel is divided into three main parts: a twelve page introduction, nine short chapters, and a brief conclusion. The introduction is a short description of Ethan Frome’s life in Starkfield up until the story begins, the nine chapters describe the events of four February days around the late 1890s, and the conclusion is a brief description of what happens after these four days. This small town, wintery…

“Ethan Frome” written by Edith Wharton was published in 1911, taking place in the small town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, focusing on the love life of Ethan Frome. Ethan Frome is a farmer on a poor farm left to him by his father who passed away while he was in college; Ethan came back to care for his mother and thankfully help came from his cousin, Zeena. When the mother died Ethan saw no choice but to marry her, if he didn’t he would be alone the rest of winter. A year passes and everything…

Sweeping POV: The Reason Behind The Three Narrators The title character from Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome is an enigma. His memory of when he visited Florida (the one time he actually left Starkfield) is buried under the monotonous experience of dealing with the snow year in and year out. When an unnamed engineer stays in town due to a union strike, he asks around and finds out bits and pieces of Frome’s life out of curiosity. Two important people he asks are Harmon Gow and Mrs. Hale. They’re…

asked Zeena to marry him, even though he did not love her. Years later, Zeena’s cousin Mattie Silver came to live with the Fromes after her father’s death, and Ethan realized he loved Mattie, even though he was still married to Zeena. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton uses symbolism to create sympathy for Ethan and Mattie, and a distasteful feeling toward Zeena. Thus, though Ethan’s responsibility lies…

Edith Wharton led one of the most privileged lives of any major American novelists. She lived free of money worries because of inherited income. She had houses in rich areas, passions for gardens and interior decoration, toured Europe in cars and yachts, and despised second-class hotels (Franzen). Wharton lived a high profile life unlike any other authors, a comfortable life that most people today want to live. She came from a long line of important names in the American, specifically the New…

and then we try our hardest to end up becoming something that has already been planned for us by a power larger than existence? The Naturalism genre conveys the power that our society and social restraints have on our destiny. In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the main protagonist (Ethan) displays a perfect example of how society shapes a person by him being completely under the influence of society’s restriction with his wife Zeena and later Mattie. That…

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, symbolism plays a major role in the story. In order for the symbols in his story to “pop” out or show its “shine” Edith Wharton uses symbols that can be found in the story, and even uses the historical background that the symbol may have in society or in myths, for the symbols that appear in the story. In Edith Wharton story Ethan Frome, the symbols that are important in the story and in its plot are the color red, Zeena’s pet cat, Zeena’s best dish which got…