Ethan

Edith Wharton was the author of Ethan Frome and many other celebrated novels. She was born in into a wealthy family in New York on January 24, 1862. The third child and only daughter of George Frederic and Lucretia Rhinelander Jones, the young Edith spent much of her childhood in Europe, mainly France, Germany, Italy. There she spent most of her time developing both her gift for languages as well as a deep appreciation for beauty – in art, architecture and literature. Returning to New York in…

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,…

In the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, a man named Ethan who lives on his family’s farm with no hope of leaving, struggles to support and to love his wife. When he begins to fall for his wife’s cousin who is helping out in the house during the midst of a cold depressing winter, she begins to turn it into a winter wonderland. Many aspects of the book lead up to the suicide attempt of Mattie and Ethan; it all starts with Mattie turning down Denis Eady and then Ethan kissing the cloth.…

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…

Stuck on a farm, forced to deal with the eventual death of both his parents and lost in the beauty of the house maid Mattie Silver, Ethan Frome is a victim in Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome. Throughout the novel, Wharton highlights the circumstances Frome's faces that lead him to his incident on the sled when Mattie and he crash into a tree. Wharton begins Frome’s journey of poor circumstances when his father dies and he is left in Starkfield to tend for his sick mother while still…

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan is shown to have many internal and external problems. This brings the question, “What is the primary cause for these problems?” into the readers mind. Many readers would say it is Zeena and her illness always bringing Ethan down. Some people say it is Maddie leading him on to get with her. The real source of all of Ethan’s problems is where he lives, Starkfield. Starkfield has basically ruined Ethan’s chance of true happiness from the beginning by holding…

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…

Massachusetts, the characters in the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton are profoundly impacted by the challenges and struggles that result from the austere surroundings. As a member of New York City’s elite upper class, Edith Wharton wrote numerous books with a setting in New York City and the upper class. However, Ethan Frome has a very different setting and the characters, therefore go through very different challenges and struggles. The plot of Ethan Frome often results from challenges…

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…

The short story, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton transfered the idea that with all love, conflict emerges and can possibly destroy affection. The author compiled a journey through which the main character, Ethan Frome, discovered that social ideals and expectations can contradict with one’s yearnings. Ethan Frome went through an emotional voyage over rough seas from the beginning to the end. Frome, a married man in Starkfield, a town in Massachusetts, was anchored down by his wife’s disability.…