The dead silence of the Frome household is something that time cannot take back and all roots from one event. Mattie Silver is everything in which Ethan Frome lives for, but after the smash-up with him and her, everything changed. Now, “Ethan’s face[d] [would] break your heart”, Zenobia’s (Zeena) increase in health is a “miracle”, and Mattie is stuck in paralysis (67). The marriage between Ethan and Zeena Frome was slowly falling apart throughout the novel and, although it comes back together in the end, one thing is different. None of the characters gets what the reader hopes for: a happy ending. Through diction, irony, and a progressively somber tone, Edith Wharton uses an outside character to depict the tense condition of the Frome household …show more content…
Hale’s speech and actions shows the tension that an exterior character, Mrs. Hale, feels when looking at the Frome marriage and household. Mrs. Hale “pause[s] a moment”, only after speaking briefly on the subject that Zeena was now healed, a positive aspect in life. The pause in the paragraph creates a sense of hesitation and allows the narrator to think about what she had just said. The narrator was thinking of “what her words evoked.” The word “Evoked” is used to bring back an idea or thought to the conscious mind. This shows how Mrs. Hale tries to describe reality in this passage. She aims to open up to the narrator, and by extension the reader, that the peace and quiet of Starkfield is not truly peaceful if a person could see the truth of the story. As Mrs. Hale moves on with her speech, she “[drew] a deep breath, as though her memory [was] eased of its long burden.” Shown a display of serenity, the reader is left to believe that the second speech given by Mrs. Hale was the end of the issues seen with the Fromes. There is a complete change in diction as Wharton uses the words “suddenly”, “impulse”, and “seized”. These once again words show the character’s sudden tension and how this time, the story, told by Mrs. Hale, would be different. So far through the passage, it has been all about the opinion that would be accepted into society easily as those were observations that were not to the extreme. Mrs. Hale shows her true opinion when …show more content…
Hale uses a progressively somber tone which allows the reader to depict the different levels of severity in the relationships between the main characters. The passage starts off with a very amused Mrs. Hale who talks about her surprisement regarding Zeena’s “miracle” of becoming perfectly healthy after the “call came to her.” This shows a mild amount of somberness as, looking from Zeena’s perspective, her health was better. On the other hand, Mattie was left in a poor state of physical health. The amount of somberness increases in the next paragraph as Mrs. Hale states that the situation in the Frome household was “pretty bad.” She adds that she pities them and there “[isn’t] a dime to spare up at the Fromes.” This slowly puts the ominous tone of there being nothing to bring up from the Fromes and how they are pitiful and, in other words, poor. Lastly, she progresses to the most somber tone of the passage by integrating the idea of death. She states that it was “a pity she did [live]” when referring to Mattie’s injuries after the crash. She does not see the “difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard; [except] that down there they’re all quiet, and the women have to hold their tongues.” Through this long quote, the reader is left to analyze what this somber idea means. “Down there, they’re all quiet” shows the implication that physically dying is better than just a part of one dying. This is because the physical type of death
In 102 Minutes, Chapter 7, authors Dwyer and Flynn use ethos, logos, and pathos to appeal to the readers’ consciences, minds and hearts regarding what happened to the people inside the Twin Towers on 9/11. Of particular interest are the following uses of the three appeals.
“The Onion’s” mock press release on the MagnaSoles satirical article effectively attacks the rhetorical devices, ethos and logos, used by companies to demonstrate how far advertisers will go to convince people to buy their products. It does this by using manipulative, “scientific-sounding" terminology, comparisons, fabrication, and hyperboles.
... his mother had passed in the “spring instead of the winter” their marriage “would not have happened” (Wharton 56). Deep irony and tragedy appears numerously throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator learns that the “smash-up” happened “twenty-four years ago from next February” (Wharton 3). After February comes springtime. Whenever Zeena leaves town to seek new advice from a new doctor, she often goes to a town called Springfield. The word “stark” means hard, bare and difficult, however outside of Starkfield “Springfield” exists where Zeena retrieves medicine and advice. The last time she went to Springfield she spent twenty dollars worth of Ethan’s money to pay for an electric battery, which she never used. Trips to Springfield are very costly and never cure Zeena’s illness. This shows how springtime and health is false hope for the Fromes.
“He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man and he bid me rise out of bed and cut your throat!” (Miller 47).
20 were executed” (Blumberg). The Crucible setting is based on The Salem Witch trials, but the plot is based on The Red Scare. The author employs strict tone and rhetorical questions to convey power. This connects to the purpose of how a occurring can devastate a whole community and the people in it. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, employs empowerment by expressing the challenges within each character and their influence on the trial through the characters John Proctor, Abigail, and Danforth.
In the early stages of American history, life was not all it seemed cut out to be; and under any circumstances, integrating into a new lifestyle is difficult. John Downe, a British immigrant, writes a letter to his wife hoping to persuade her to join him in America. Downe uses heavy logos, pathos, and juxtaposition in his argument.
This quote is also found on page 140, in chapter 9, still while Mrs. Hale is telling the narrator about the Fromes.
The creative writing techniques that Wharton uses within her writing enhance the story and make it worth reading. Wharton is very descriptive in almost every aspect of her story. This gives the reader another element to the story rather than just reading dialogue or general descriptions. A point where Wharton gets descriptive, is when she starts to explain Frome’s house and how “ the image (of itself) presents of a life linked with the soil, and enclosing in itself the chief sources of warmth and nourishment, or whether merely because of the consolatory thought that it enables the dwellers in that harsh climate to get to their mornings’ work without facing the weather, it is certain that the ‘L’ rather the house itself seems to be the center, the actual hearth-stone of the New England farm” (Wharton 11). This shows how detailed Wharton can get. It not only gives the reader a g...
Although when we are young, we commonly find ourselves gravitating to books with predictable endings that leave the protagonist and us with what we want, as we mature we develop a hunger for different, more thoughtful or realistic solutions. This is not to say, however, that we can be satisfied solely through the reading of any story that concludes with mere tragedy. The reason why the book Ethan Frome is so widely read is because there is a great deal of technique behind the element of mere tragedy. Edith Wharton is able to distinguish her novel through the use of irony. Irony has been the defining element of many great pieces of literature throughout time. The use of irony dates back all the way to ancient Greece when it was used by Sophocles in the play Oedipus Rex. Irony was also a key element in many of Shakespeare's works and appears in many famous short stories. In Ethan Frome, Ethan ends up falling in love with Mattie who at the time seems young and effervescent in comparison to his sickly, deteriorating wife. In attempting to free himself and Mattie from his commitment to Zeena, Ethan ends up causing Mattie to become paralyzed, taking with it her previous, lively characteristics. All the household responsibilities then fall into the hands of Zeena who is ultimately the most vivacious of the three.
Ethan Frome published by Eddie Wharton was set in Starkfield, Massachusetts in 1904. The story happenss against cold hard weather at the New England state. The main character was established as outreach farmer who tends to his very cold, aggressive and disturbed wife named Zeena. He had little hope with his wife until Zeena's cousin, Matte arrives to help him. During the period, he slowly fall in love with Matte causing his marriage to collapsing the relationship between him and Zeena. Ethan From was one all-time classic American books showing characters development through hard facts or conditions that reflects and teaches us the relation in today's social standards.
Ethan’s miserable mindset and dissatisfaction with his life represents an undesirable pattern. As the narrator learns about the “Starkfield chronicle,” he discovers Ethan’s struggle to enjoy life and his inability to break through the literal gray clouds that restrict him to his repetitive daily existence (Wharton 4). As Ethan’s love for his wife 's cousin Mattie grows while in the presence of his unbearable wife Zeena, he fights to break pattern in his life and show his affection towards Mattie. Ultimately, the never changing setting and climate parallels life in the Frome household as it is the factor that halts Ethan from evolving. As Ethan grows closer to Mattie, Zeena slowly fades from Ethan’s mind as color and warmth gradually appear when he is with Mattie. Ethan already experiences repetition in his life, and now this new feeling with Mattie never occurs long enough for Ethan to taste a lasting change. Ethan can only begin to feel like a changed man when Mattie and him are out of the house, or when Zeena is out of town for medical reasons. Ethan feels he makes progress with Mattie, but his failure to solidify a relationship with her is another pattern in his life. As if Ethan’s life is not pitiful enough, he “is a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface” (Wharton 5). The description of Starkfield only amplifies the level of prevention that the setting and climate place on his relationship with Mattie. Starkfield limits Ethan from feeling alive with Mattie by burying him under the cold snow and ice, which symbolizes his
Ethan Frome, by Edith Warton is truly a tale of the “living dead”. Don’t be confused by the way this term is used in movies, where the living dead are corpses that rise from the ground. In this case, the term “living dead” refers to a person who is physically alive but emotionally dead. In the novel, Ethan Frome all three main characters are emtionally dead.
Scientists are constantly forced to test their work and beliefs. Thus they need the ability to embrace the uncertainty that science is based on. This is a point John M. Barry uses throughout the passage to characterize scientific research, and by using rhetorical devices such as, comparison, specific diction, and contrast he is able show the way he views and characterizes scientific research.
Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...
The first reader has a guided perspective of the text that one would expect from a person who has never studied the short story; however the reader makes some valid points which enhance what is thought to be a guided knowledge of the text. The author describes Mrs. Mallard as a woman who seems to be the "victim" of an overbearing but occasionally loving husband. Being told of her husband's death, "She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed inability to accept its significance." (This shows that she is not totally locked into marriage as most women in her time). Although "she had loved him--sometimes," she automatically does not want to accept, blindly, the situation of being controlled by her husband. The reader identified Mrs. Mallard as not being a "one-dimensional, clone-like woman having a predictable, adequate emotional response for every life condition." In fact the reader believed that Mrs. Mallard had the exact opposite response to the death her husband because finally, she recognizes the freedom she has desired for a long time and it overcomes her sorrow. "Free! Body and soul free! She kept whispering." We can see that the reader got this idea form this particular phrase in the story because it illuminates the idea of her sorrow tuning to happiness.