Powerful Winter Imagery in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome, the title character of Edith Wharton's tragic novel, lives
in his own world of silence, where he replaces his scarcity of words with
images and fantasies. There is striking symbolism in the imagery,
predominantly that of winter which connotes frigidity, detachment, bleakness
and seclusion.
Twenty-eight year old Ethan feels trapped in his hometown of Starkfield,
Massachusetts. He marries thirty-four year old Zeena after the death of his
mother, "in an unsuccessful attempt to escape the silence, isolation, and
loneliness of life" (Lawson 71).
Several years after their marriage, cousin Mattie Silver is asked to relieve
Zeena, a gaunt and sallow hypochondriac, of her household duties. Ethan finds
himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, "The
pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to
Mattie" (Wharton 60).
Ethan is attracted to Mattie because she is the antithesis of Zeena.
"While Mattie is young, happy, healthy, and beautiful like the summer, Zeena is
seven years older than Ethan, bitter, ugly and sickly cold like the winter"
(Lewis 310). Zeena's strong, dominating personality emasculates Ethan, while
Mattie's feminine, effervescent youth makes Ethan feel like a "real man."
Contrary to his characteristic passiveness, he defies Zeena in Mattie's defence,
"You can't go, Matt! I won't let you! She's [Zeena's] always had her way, but
I mean to have mine now -" (Wharton 123). To Ethan, Mattie is radiant and
energetic. He sees possibilities in her beyond his trite life in Starkfield,
something truly worth standing up for. Her energy and warmth excite him and
allow him to escape from his lonely, monotonous life.
While Zeena is visiting an out of town doctor, Ethan and Mattie, alone
in the house, intensely feel her eerie presence. The warmth of their evening
together is brought to an abrupt end by the accidental breaking of Zeena's
prized dish. Zeena's fury at the breaking of an impractical pickle dish
exemplifies the rage she must feel about her useless life. "That the pickle
dish has never been used makes it a strong symbol of Zeena herself, who prefers
not to take part in life" (Lawson 68-69). Ethan's response to Zeena's rage was
Meanwhile, how could she keep the farm going? It was only by incessant labour and personal supervision that Ethan drew a meager living from his land, and his wife, even if she were in better health than she imagined, could never carry such a burden alone" (Wharton 73). This evidence demonstrates Ethan's quality of his kind and loving nature towards others. The reason is when he wants to leave Zeena, he thinks about her future and how she will suffer to support herself. He cannot bear Zeena's pain, so he puts her future and their marriage before his dreams. His dream is to "leave with Mattie the next day" (Wharton 72). Another example when Ethan is a very concernful person is when "she would have suffered a complete loss of identity" (Wharton 38). This quote demonstrates Ethan's concern for Zeena because Ethan's dream is to move to the metropolitan area, but Zeena's sickliness will make her look inferior to the city. Ethan's concern for Zeena's image prevents him to "sell the farm and saw-mill and try their luck in a large town. Ethan's love of nature did not take
In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton applied significant factors (Messages) to show how the tale of this novel is a social tragedy. Even thought (Though) this novel might seem to be a tale of personal tragedy, it is actually a tale of social tragedy. The main character of this novel, Ethan Frome, is always conflicting (with) against the society whenever he is trying to do what he desires. As a result, society affects Ethan Frome’s life in many ways; most of the time society leads him to the tragedy.
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
In Ethan Frome, the theme of winter is predominantly used, with its confining nature, to portray each character’s hardships. For example, the theme of winter is directly linked with Ethan Frome and the harsh conditions he has to endure to survive. To Ethan, the wintry snow in Starkfield seems elegant and appealing, but as he sees later on, the snow is unveiled as a major obstacle, preventing Ethan from achieving his dreams. Winter manifests itself as the ice, cold, and snow symbolically representing the isolation that Ethan experiences. As the narrator states “when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow… must have been in Ethan Frome's young manhood,” The solitude that winter brings causes Starkfield to
...ss for yourself because in the end, one will regret it. Ethan’s morals prevent him from leaving Starkfield to pursue and achieve his dreams. He cannot baffle the traditions of his town. After Zeena tries to "foist on him the cost of a servant", forcing Ethan to let go of Mattie, he chooses to “leave with Mattie”. However, he cannot go through with the plan because he cannot bear to leave Zeena alone with her sickness. He knows she would not be able to take care of herself and cannot afford her own medicine. It is inappropriate to leave his wife in this bad condition. Therefore Ethan chooses to live an unhappy life instead of deceive his family and friends. Wharton portrays that by following society’s standards they will lose their hope and end up living in misery. Ethan chose to embark the obstacles and in the end it ruined him to a life of unhappiness and failure.
Perhaps Edith Wharton's reason for writing Ethan Frome, was that it so vividly reflected her own dreary life. Abandoned of any love as a child from her mother and trapped in a marriage similar to that of Zeena and Ethan, Wharton found herself relying on illicit love. This illicit love was also her favorite topic of writing, which helped her to escape her own tragedies. She spent many nights in the arms of other men searching desperately for the love she believed existed, but had never felt, which is evident in all of her writings.
“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
When Zeena was there while Ethan's mother was ill to "nurse her", she gave him the "human speech" he longed for because his mother had "lost the power of speech." Ethan felt that he would be "dreadful" if "left alone" if Zeena were to leave him, so he ended up marrying her so she would stay. Ethan is unable to make decisions without thinking of her first or being reminder that she's the one he is loyal to because of this attachment. Even having blissful moments with Mattie, Ethan cannot rid his mind of Zeena. While having supper, the cat "jumped between them into Zeena's empty chair" and when reminded of Zeena, Ethan was "paralyzed." Ethan is happy when with Mattie, but his love for her will never rid him from Zeena. Ethan was even planning o asking the Hales for currency, but the thought of "leaving alone" his "sickly woman" led him to desert his plan in taking money to leave Zeena by herself. This shows that even in his desire to escape her, Ethan values their marriage and is still thinking of her greater good. Ethan's happiness resides in Mattie to the point where he was willing to kill himself to be with her forever, however, midway through the attempt, "his wife's face, with twisted monstrous ligaments, thrusts itself between him and his goal." Due to Zeena showing herself to Ethan near death, he "swerved in response" which may have caused the attempt to fail. This scene demonstrates how Ethan, even when
Symbols are what takes a novel to another level and without them a novel would be very one dimensional and readers would lose interest. The color red is very prevailing in Ethan Frome. We associate red with blood, love, hate, passion, danger, and countless others. There are many items in this story that are specifically described as red. Ethan’s scar, the “"cherry-coloured fascinator” (Wharton 32), the pickle dish, and the sun. It seems as if the red symbols are related to angsts in Ethan’s life. The red pickle dish is a symbol of Ethan and Mattie’s marriage. When it breaks, Zeena is devastated, but Ethan, not so much. The idea of passion between the two ties into the color of the dish, red. Also, keep in mind that Mattie was the one who took the dish out of the china closet, which resulted in the cat breaking it. Just like how she broke Ethan and Mattie’s marriage. Another symbol is the tree at the end of the snow slope. Ethan sees Zeena’s face on the tree. The tree symbolizes the desire to be belligerent towards Zeena. Ethan could have avoided the crash into the tree if he wished. Even though both Ethan and Mattie ended up injured, Ethan was glad he hit “Zeena”. The night that Ethan had walked with Mattie home, he notices “A dead cucumber vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death" (Wharton 56). This symbolizes and foreshadows a death to come. The death of Ethan Zeena’s marriage,
Only the ruthlessly devoted and heartless can make it to the top without feeling bad about who they knocked down to triumph. Ethan cant strive for a higher level of happiness because so many factors pull him down. To leave Starkfield with his love, Mattie, he would need more money than he can afford, and to get this he would be forced to lie and compromise his friendships. Ethan decides not to lie about a loan from the Hales, and in this decision he proves he cannot let go of his morals, because that would make him more miserable than he was to begin with. His conscience holds him back even more, as he is constantly reminded of what would become of Zeena if she was left alone to care for herself. His inescapable fate is foreshadowed by the gravestones that lie on his property, which echo the lifestyle he is obligated to live with Zeena in Starkf...
The whole reason Ethan married Zeena was so that he wouldn't be all alone on the farm after his mom had died “When Ethan’s mother died, he was "seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm; and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him."” (Hoffman). Ethan quickly realized that this marriage with her wouldn’t give him the sense of happiness that he wanted, but instead made Ethan feel even more alone and even less happy than he was after his mom had died “...makes him feel further removed from happiness..” (Hoffman). This situation furthers once Mattie arrives at the Frome household and Zeena begins to isolate herself in her room complaining that she is sick and needs bed rest. This sense of isolation is especially shown when the Narrator tries to talk to Ethan and gain more details about his life, but Ethan won’t talk “, he has trouble obtaining further details. Ethan’s isolation is evident in their conversation.” (Hoffman). This life happened because Ethan sacrificed something crucial, his happiness, and now he’s dealing with the consequences of this decision. The book also talks about how Ethan’s isolation in his marriage and in his life is the reason that at the end of the book the condition, and quality of life at the Frome household is very tense and quiet, “... but winters
He is physically isolated from the world and is also cut off from the possibility of any relationship. Due to his new situation, he looks for an outlet in order to relieve himself from this isolation. Luckily enough for him, Mattie comes around in order to help Zeena out due to her illness. Wharton writes, “...the coming to his house of a bit hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire under a cold heart” (Wharton 33). As Smith recognizes in this comparison, he says that “His (Ethan) life of isolation changes, however, when Mattie Silver comes to stay with him and his wife” (Smith 96). Smith correctly analyzes Ethan’s situation, labeling Mattie as this outlet of hope that he can turn to in order to cope with his isolation. Wharton herself shows that Ethan truly did view Mattie as his outlet for hope, mainly due to his love for her, which Mattie shares equally for him. This love sprouts from many things including attractiveness, conversation, understanding, and listening, many of which he lacks for his whole life and where most of his isolation roots itself. Wharton writes, “She had an eye to see and an ear to hear: he could show her things and tell her things, and taste the bliss of feeling that all he imparted left long reverberations and echoes he could wake at will” (Wharton 28). This is a fancy way of saying that they Mattie not only listened to Ethan, but also
5. A second test tube was then filled with water and placed in a test
The Effect of the Number of Coils on an Electromagnet On Its Strength Aim: - To establish whether a variation in the number of coils will affect an electromagnet's strength. Scientific Knowledge -. The concept of electromagnets is fairly simple. An iron nail wrapped in a series of coils of insulated wire and then connected to a battery, will enable the nail to pick up paper clips. This is because the current emitted from the battery to the coils magnetizes the nail to the surface.