Unselfish and Stupid Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome was an unselfish man, he looked out for the interests of others and acted to serve them rather than himself. Though this attitude is normally considered a wonderful characteristic it proved to be Ethan Frome's undoing. All of Ethan's troubles were a direct result of his unselfishness and strict moral standards. The life that Ethan lived, the plot of the story, could have been drastically changed, and most likely changed for the better had Ethan considered the effects of his actions and decisions upon himself.
Ethan was an intelligent man, he had high dreams for himself as an engineer, and he wanted to have a life away from the ceaseless drudgery of life in Starksville. When his mother died leaving Zeena without a place to go, Ethan, being the kind man he was, offered to marry her because he felt obligated to do so. This decision however shut out his hopes for a better life. In order for Ethan to get an education he must have money. In order for Ethan to get money he must sell the farm. And with a new wife to take care of he could not possibly manage it. Ethan's decision to marry Zeena had fettered his social mobility and had brought about the backlash of Zeena's discontent.
Ethan further brought on the wrath of Zeena when he chose to get involved with Mattie. Ethan cared a great deal for Mattie and didn't' want Zeena to take her from him. Because Mattie was not well suited to be a maid and frequently made mistakes Ethan would help her with her chores. Ethan also comforted her and tried to hide her shortcomings from Zeena. However his efforts to help Mattie ended up hurting him. Zeena was most definitely aware of Ethan's fondness of Mattie; she insinuated this when she locked Ethan and Mattie out of the house. Besides helping Mattie with her chores Ethan stood up for her and stood up for her in front of Zeena. When the cat broke the pickle dish when Zeena was away at seeing a doctor Ethan went out of his way to try to cover it up. He concocted a plan to buy some glue and put the dish back together so that Zeena wouldn't notice. When that plan failed and Zeena found the broken dish, Ethan was willing to take the blame instead of Mattie.
The writing in the novel, Ethan Frome is fantastic. The love of Ethan Frome is crystal clear. Ethan and Mattie are both believably in love and Ethan's desperation grips the reader. Zeena, I think, is the most well described of them all. She is reality itself--beyond love, beyond fate, and it is she who outlasts them all. Although I think I fell in love with both Mattie and Ethan in this story and was feeling that intense love and pain of impending separation in their last moments together, the realist in me loved the ending! Zeena, the old witch, the nagging and cunning negative hag, is the one who is the rock in the moving stream. It's so 20th century. There is something black about the ending that you have to like.
He deals with her complaining, overpowering and demanding personality, and she acts like she is always ‘sick.’ However, he didn’t ignore his feelings for Mattie and he wasn’t strong enough to run away and escape. When he was planning to run away with Mattie, he had to go get money from Mr. Andrew so they could run away but on his way there he met Mrs. Andrew. She told Ethan, “I always tell Mr. Hale I don’t know what she’d ‘a’ [Zeena] done if she hadn’t ‘a’ had you to look after her… You’ve had an awful mean time, Ethan Frome” (Wharton 104). After Mrs. Andrew tells this to Ethan, he doesn’t go ask for Mr. Andrew to pay him and instead goes home. He feels ashamed for for making Mr. Andrew get the money he needs because last time Ethan asked for the money, Mr. Andrew couldn’t get it. He also feels guilty for hurting his friends and he doesn’t want to leave Zeena with nothing when he runs away with Mattie. This displays again, how Ethan is a weak
Ethan Frome, a novella written by Edith Wharton, communicates a story of Ethan and his life living with his ill wife, Zeena, when a new lover comes into his home. Ethan and Zeena live in a place called Starkfield, a cold and lonely location situated in the New England area. Mattie comes into Ethan’s life to help her cousin, Zeena, around the house as her sickness has obstructed her ability to do housework. This causes problems for Ethan because he starts to fall in love with Mattie as she stays with the Fromes. The isolation of Starkfield prevents Ethan from living his life the way he wanted to. That causes Ethan to abandon his dreams of college and moving away from Starkfield. Ethan becomes hindered by the isolation of Starkfield because of
Throughout “Ethan Frome,” Edith Wharton renders the idea that freedom is just out of reach from the protagonist, Ethan Frome. The presence of a doomed love affair and an unforgiving love triangle forces Ethan to choose between his duty and his personal desire. Wharton’s use of archetypes in the novella emphasizes how Ethan will make choices that will ultimately lead to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s, “Ethan Frome.” Ethan is wedged between his duty as a husband and his desire for happiness; however, rather than choosing one or the other, Ethan’s indecisiveness makes not only himself, but Mattie and Zeena miserable.
The book says, “His wife had never shown any jealousy of Mattie, but of late she had grumbled increasingly over the house-work and found oblique ways of attracting attention to the girl 's inefficiency(Wharton, chpt 1).” This means Zeena knew about the love affair. Because Ethan and Zeena did not honestly love each other, the affair did not bother Zeena. Eventually, though, Zeena wants to force Mattie to go back home. Ethan and Mattie are extremely devastated by this. Ethan is not in love with either girl, but cannot leave either one. What happened next was a sleigh riding accident. Ethan purposely drove a sled into a tree hoping to kill Mattie and himself. By doing this he could escape all his responsibilities. He would not be abandoning anyone technically. The immaturity in Ethan 's personality is shown through this event. The accident caused Ethan and Zeena to be obligated to care for Mattie for the rest of their lives. Because the accident was intentional Ethan should be held accountable for it. He was supposed to be a mature adult who made the right decisions. He failed at this. Ethan should have been put in jail for this mishap. Moreover, Mattie did die that day because her liveliness
From the beginning of the story, society opposed Ethan Frome in any ways. To begin with, he was a prisoner with his wife, Zeena. Just because Zeena took care of his mother as she was dying, Ethan felt like she was the woman for him. However, when Zeena’s cousin Mattie came to live with them, he instantly fell in love with her, and felt nothing but audacity towards his wife. When Zeena goes away due to her illness, Ethan and Mattie sit at home planning their future ahead of them. He plans to elope and run away with Mattie, but he cannot lie to his neighbors, Mr and Mrs. Hale in order to achieve the money he needs. In the end, Ethan decides to abandon life itself along with his true love Mattie. Ethan was a prisoner to poverty. When he was young, he wanted to leave his family farm in order to move to a larger town to become an engineer. However, that plan backfired and he was trapped in Starkfield for life. Society does not want Ethan to be happy for he committed adultery and treated his wife like she didn’t matter. The gravestones in his yard are a reminder t...
Hard work goes a long way and Ethan wasn’t willing to do it so instead he got frustrated and tried to cut corners which didn’t work so I think if Ethan just would have kept plugging away as being a table servant because he was actually starting to do really well with it before he saw Link.
Ethan marries Zeena so he won't be alone after his mother dies. She seemed like a very cheerful, vivacious person while his mother was sick. After their marriage all this changed. She became a very nagging, sick wife. Because of Zeena's "complications" they had to hire someone to help around the house. Mattie, Zeena's cousin, needed a place to live and seemed fit for the job. She moved in and Ethan took and immediate liking to her. He found someone that cared for him, was always happy, and could share his youth. All of which, Zeena was incapable of doing. Ethan longed to be with Mattie, but he was loyal to Zeena. Being married to Zeena was Ethan's first failure.
Temperate grassland biomes can be found in North America, Africa, the pampas of South America and many parts of Eurasia. Grass is the main plant in Temperate Grassland biomes, trees and shrubs are rare to see in this type of biome. Temperate grasslands also have an extremely high abundance of wildlife. The wildlife living in this biome includes bison and pronghorn sheep, but mainly the animals most affected were the cattle and horses that lived on the surrounding farms.
“No, he didn’t. For I’d ‘a’ been ashamed to tell him that you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother” (Wharton 46). This section of the book fixed my perception of Zeena. As I begun reading I thought Zeena was just simply an ill wife, with her hard-working husband. While Ethan battles his feelings for Mattie, I was angry. This is based on how I was raised, I was angry that Ethan liked another while his own wife struggled with her own health. I thought he could do more to help his wife. The quote shocked me, I didn’t think of Zeena like this. I thought of her as a sickly, caring wife. I was wrong and this section gave me a new version of what was happening. Soon instead of being angry at Ethan, I became
There are certain people in the world where they "see obstacles as threats. Still others see obstacles as meaning they cannot succeed" ("Overcoming Obstacles."). This is the type of thinking Ethan and Mattie had throughout the story. Being in love caused them to see Zeena as the threat and be scared of overcoming her due to the fact that they might upset her or bring her down, although they still loved her. An example of an obstacle between them would be Zeena's black cat, which she loved deeply and care for. During the time Zeena believed she was seriously ill she decided to go out of town and look for answers in order for her to get better. This caused for Ethan and Mattie to be left alone in the house, but not everything was lovely between them. In the back of their head they still had Zeena, although Zeena was not physically there she was still there spiritually and the black cat was there to remind them of her. "They drew
The play A Doll’s House, written by Henrik Ibsen in 1879, recounts a story of a woman who is struggling to exist within the life she has accustomed herself to. The main character Nora is depicted as a woman that has accepted the way things were being held in her household without questioning the fairness or morals of the situation. Ibsen addresses the roles of woman in society and shines a new light on the concept of feminism in the time period. Nora represents the new light on feminism that was not quite popular during the time period in which Ibsen wrote the play. Nora’s character illustrates a concept that was foreign to most women during the time, and allowed for women to realize that they should be living to their full potential. Ibsen portrays Nora as childlike, tolerant, and loyal throughout the play, defining her true essence and eventually leading her to make a decision that would change the course of her life.
In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton creates an interesting plot revolving around two star-crossed lovers. Unfortunately, there is only one important thing that gets in the way of these lovers, a wife who’s a hypochondriac. Zeena, the wife, finds herself in a particular situation, a situation where she needs to figure out how to get rid of Mattie. She tries everything to get rid of her, especially her illness, using it as an excuse to get what she wants, oppressing Ethan’s desires and needs. Despite her malicious actions, she creates a justifiable reasoning of her intent. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton creates a psychological response in regards to Zeena. Rather than being depicted as the villain of the novel, Zeena is merely the victim of
Nora is a dynamic character. When the play begins Nora is viewed and presented as a playful and carefree person. She seems to be more intent on shopping for frivolous things. But, as time goes on it becomes apparent that Nora actually has a certain amount of seriousness in her decisions and actions in dealing with the debt she incurred to save Torvald’s life. Nora’s openness in her friendship with Dr. Rank changes after he professes his affections toward her. Her restraint in dealing with him shows that Nora is a mature and intelligent woman. Nora shows courage, not seen previously, by manipulating her way around Krogstad and his threats to reveal her secret. After feeling betrayed by Torvald, Nora reveals that she is leaving him. Having
Initially, Nora’s personality is labeled as immature yet also most times obedient in Torvald’s presence; she is always sweet-talking him for favors instead of communicating as an equal couple. This looks like Nora is using this as a mechanism to cope and try to forget her past misbehaviors. Another side of looking at this is looking at Nora as a sensitive woman, but sensible at the same time, and completely has no idea of how much she’s worth until the climax of the play. This is confirmed by how her husband, Torvald always calls her a “little skylark”, or a “little squirrel” and she is quiet and does not do anything about it which seems like she is content with it. Today, I am sure most women will be offended by such comments and the fact that Nora takes this kind of treatment, makes me think that she either has a low self esteem, or she is just ignoring he whole situation.