Ethan Frome

Choice of Narrator In the introduction of Ethan Frome, the reader learns that the narrator is an engineer sent by his employers to work at Corbury Junction. The narrator symbolizes what Ethan wanted to be; an engineer not anchored to Starkfield. He also was very observant and interested in Ethan. He wondered how Ethan ended up the way he did. He meets a man, Harmon Grow, and he tries to get more information about Ethan from him. One thing he said stuck with him forever, “Guess he’s been in…

12/3/15 American Lit. H Period H Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Study Guide Questions Beginning of Chapter 2: 1. The narrator learns from the other characters that Ethan Frome is about 52 years old, he is stuck in Starkfield, Massachusetts to take care of his sick wife Zeena, and he has been in an accident about 24 years ago and has a scar on the right side of his face. Knowing this information makes the narrator want to know more about Ethan. 2. Ethan’s house is an old, falling apart…

Edith Wharton, author of “Ethan Frome,” wrote a twisted love story that ends tragically. Mattie Silver moves to Starkfield MA with her cousin, Zeena Frome and her husband Ethan Frome. She moves in with them in after her father dies. After a while, Mattie and Ethan fall in love. They try to commit suicide together and are unsuccessful and are permanently disabled. From the events that have taken place, Mattie Silver changes from taking care of others, to having to be taken care of. Mattie Silver…

O Pioneers and Ethan Frome are two classic, exciting novels. Even though the two plots of these stories aren’t much alike, the have similarities so often, it’s eerie. From the cold, harsh winter that the stories take place in, to the fact that they were written 2 years apart (1911 - 1913). These stories were not meant to relate at all, but the more you read, the more similarities you may find throughout both books. I find it funny that the similarities are not more recognised in the reading…

Wharton establishes patterns of imagery by using figurative language — language meant to be taken figuratively as well as literally. In Ethan Frome, Wharton's descriptive imagery is one of the most important features of her simple and efficient prose style. Her descriptions serve a definite stylistic and structural purpose. The figurative language used by Wharton includes metaphors and similes. Metaphors compare two unlike things without using words of comparison. For example, in the beginning…

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a novel dealing with a young man’s persistent battle between his desires and moral principles. The story is set in 17th century New England in a rural community. The town of Starkfield is an area in which northern winters siege the inhabitants and hinder their daily lives. The characters within the novel must resist the frigid climate as it is a major impediment throughout the novel. Ultimately, Ethan Frome faces a conflict between his emotional desires and moral…

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…

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…

Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton is a tragic novella following Ethan Frome as he attempts to express his feelings for the one he truly loves, Mattie Silver. Ethan, however, is already married and feels obligated to care for his wife, Zeena. Over their 7 year marriage, Zeena has fallen perpetually ill and requires more aid than Ethan can give. In order to provide her the help she needs, they hire Mattie Silver, Zeena’s cousin. Zeena’s illness harks back to Ethan’s mother’s illness, from which Zeena…

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…