The Theme Of Loneliness In Wharton's Ethan Frome

As seen through the novel Ethan Frome, a large part of the introduction is based on how dreary the town of Starkfield, particularly during winter. In some novels, winter can be portrayed as a type of purity or calmness, but the bleak, frigid cold of winter in Starkfield has a more unfavorable interpretation. Starkfield is just as it’s name portrays; bare and rural. While this is a major characteristic of the setting, this depiction of the town is uniform throughout the novel. The characters (with the exception of Mattie) coincide with this dreary, dismal setting (Bernard 179). This cold New England setting reinforces the detriment the elements can have on an entire community (McDowell 90).

The opposites of the summer and winter seasons mirror

Ethan’s depressing outlook soon transfers to Zenobia making her blend with the unwanted coldness that was a Starkfield winter. She quickly became something Frome wanted to escape but couldn’t just as the frigidness of his setting.

Before anything is spoken of Ethan, Starkfield is described as “gray and lonely” which may indeed be an insightful foreshadowing of the characters living within (Wharton ). The narrator seems, at the beginning, to believe the harsh winters has left Ethan with a certain wear on his face, but this had only been caused by the harshness that is Ethan’s love life (McDowell

This event which brings Frome a feeling warmth happens in the summer. When this site in revisted in the winter, Ethan realizes Mattie will have to be wed to someone besides himself, which hurts him emotionally (Lawson 69). This place that had brought Ethan so much happiness was now a place in which Ethan felt nothing but sorrow. The significance of Shadow Pond had changed just as the seasons had. The isolation of the farm and the cold winter illustrates how Ethan feels throughout his life: alone and isolated from his true feelings (Knights 76). His feelings of love for Mattie are unable to be shown, so he awaits his fate, frozen in the trap of love (Bernard 179). The bleak landscape helps set the tone for the readers. This desolate environment shows how much Ethan is suffering as he goes through his daily life (McDowell 30). There is a type of emotional starvation in the once thriving, but now pathetic life of Ethan Frome (Wolff 232). As difficult as it is for Ethan to be tied down emotionally by his wife, he has also lost his physical attributes as well. No longer does Ethan have the strength he once did making surviving at his isolated farm even more difficult (Bernard