Ethan

Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome is structured specifically to create an aura of suspense and thrill. The prologue acts to give a fleeting insight to the mysterious character of Ethan Frome, but intentionally neglects to offer an explanation as to why he is in his current condition, thus keeping the audience on their toes. Such strategies used by Wharton create an overall effect of mystery and confusion until the very end. The switch of point of view to third person omniscient puts readers in a front…

student. Since it was in the midst of playtime I noticed the environment was more lively and louder in volume than it was in my previous visit. As Ethan was playing in the block area he was the only one in this area. Grabbing blocks one by one, Ethan aligned the blocks in different zig zap paths. Instead of building a structure with the blocks, Ethan would jump over them and walk on top of them. Attempting to go faster and faster each time. Once he would jump/ walk over a path back and forth he…

to her that she wouldn’t use it, keeping it for storage. While yelling at both Mattie and Ethan, her “voice br[eaks] and two small tears h[a]ng from her lashless lids [that] ran slowly down her cheeks” (Wharton 68-69). Zeena was always described as coldhearted without emotion.…

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 which grows to be more of a burden than that of the fields. Following his mother’s death Ethan marries Zenobia Pierce, a distant cousin of his. Ethan and Zenobia agree to move to a large town to pursue his yearning to become an…

In her task of characterizing Zeena as selfish and shrewd wharton recounts Zeena and Ethan's marriage and how their plans for the future are ultimately forgotten. After his mother's death and subsequent marriage to Zeena they both agree to try and sell the farm and move to a big city. It sounds like a good plan except, not only has no one bought the farm, but Zeena will be impossible to move. “She chose to look down on starkfield, but she could not have lived in a place which looked down on…

Ethan Frome was a peculiar man in his time, but when evaluating the decisions he made, we may notice similar situations. Ethan was left with a decision that many people have encountered. Zeena was a stubborn woman with an excuse that would cloud Ethan’s judgment. Mattie was the ticket out of his life. Ethan fought back and forth with the decision he encountered. He was unsure if he and Mattie would be able to work, but yet he went with his gut, planning on leaving Zeena behind. Whenever I think…

much that they decide to stay together forever. Sometimes however, people get confused by feelings and emotions and make the wrong choice. The novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, explores this very concept. The author uses a pickle dish to symbolize the destruction of marriage and broken relationships. In the story, the author explains that Ethan and Zeena are married but don’t truly love each other. None the less, the marriage itself is important to Zeena. The pickle dish is a gift they…

writing style is all her own with the way she uses powerful imagery and ironic endings to create a literary masterpiece. Wharton begins to write at a slow pace, then invites the reader deeper into the plot as they get deeper into the book. The novel Ethan Frome and short story “Roman Fever”, both works of literature by Edith Wharton, show how Wharton layers her information to give the reader the right amount of information needed to delve into the plot. Those who read Edith Wharton’s literary…

of landscapes can work together to create strong forces that behave almost like characters in a story. Author Edith Wharton harnesses the power of carefully selected landscapes to energize her works. In the short story "Roman Fever" and the novel Ethan Frome, Wharton uses dramatic landscapes that fuel the actions of the characters and subsequently lead to the emotionally charged…

In The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome there is two particular men named Ethan Frome and Jay Gatsby that are deeply infatuated with two stunning women named Daisy Buchanan and Mattie Silver and in both novels there is a penetrating infatuation completely blinding Ethan and Jays minds and sends them into an illusion dream like state that deterrents them from reality. Infatuation induces to a dream of endless possibilities but sends both men out of reality’s cold hands with no way of return.…