Srijit Paul
Walker
Ethan Frome Essay
P.6
Thesis Question: To what extent does the harsh climate of Starkfield play a role in the minds of the Frome household? Snow, the epitome of beauty, grace, and wonder. What hides underneath this blanket of white, is far from what is thought. Snow plays a key role in creating the harsh environment that makes Starkfield, Massachusetts, a city from Ethan Frome a novel by author Edith Wharton. The harsh climate of Starkfield has a sense of changing the people that encounter it, especially the Frome household. Starkfield is an interesting name for a town in New England. The narrator’s first words of the town of itself are, “But when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow perpetually renewed from the pale skies...”(6). The city itself closes down due to the harsh climate and forces people inside. When people are stuck inside, that is when trouble starts brewing, or in the case of Ethan, lust.Th author’s choice of naming the fictional town is peculiar as she starts the towns name with the word “stark”. The oxford definition
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Mattie came to Starkfield to as a sickly but underwent a huge transformation into a strong independent woman. “How the girl had changed since she had come to Starkfield! He remembered what a colourless slip of a thing she had looked the day he had met her at the station. And all the first winter, how she had shivered with cold when the northerly gales shook the thin clapboards and the snow beat like hail against the loose-hung windows”. Mattie is symbolized as the beauty of snow, she is comforting and pretty and one of the positives of the harsh climate of Starkfield.The way Mattie changed is surprising because the isolation drives most people crazy but she manages to use the isolation to experience growth as a person. The harsh climate of Starkfield can sometimes flash a positive
They resided there for ten years, during this time she observed the people of the “hill-region” and she noticed the isolation of the community. (Moss and Wilson 126) In Lenox, Massachusetts, close to where she lived, a sledding accident occurred. Children from the Lenox Academy coasted down the “double ripper” and crashed into a lamp post. One girl was scarred, one crippled, and the other killed. (Moss and Wilson 129) The setting of the novel was in the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. In the novel, the community is isolated from those around them, especially the Frome’s. Towards the end of the novel, Zeena sends Mattie away because her doctor required her to get someone else to work in the house. Because Ethan is in love with her, he insists on driving her to town so she could catch the train. Early in the novel he promised Mattie they could go sledding down Schoolhouse Hill. Mattie and Ethan both agreed they never wanted to leave each other so they launched down the hill in hopes of killing themselves. As a result, Ethan was scarred and Mattie was crippled for
Ethan exist as a product of his environment because of the situations he’s been through because of the isolation involved with Starkfield. Confinement provides a huge role in Starkfield, many of the couples in the town are with each others cousins and close relatives, this just shows the extreme isolation surrounding the entire New England town. The town of Starkfield represents an overall symbol for isolation mostly because of how the author depicts landscape and weather and the confinement of the townspeople and Ethan. The novella shows how isolation and confinement can influence a person's future goals and overall life. “I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access,”(Wharton, 12) the quote shares how even though Starkfield itself is isolated, the farm Ethan lives on is even isolated from the town of Starkfield. Overall, Ethan remains isolated and continues to stay away from the majority of the town by remaining in his farm house for the better part of his
Ethan Frome lives in the town of Starkfield. Within the first few pages of the book, the reader can realize Ethan is not a valued member of the community. Early in the book, the family that is housing the Reverend
Many people oppose society due to the surroundings that they face and the obstacles that they encounter. Set in the bleak winter landscape of New England, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is the story of a poor, lonely man, his wife Zeena, and her cousin Mattie Silver. Ethan the protagonist in this novel, faces many challenges and fights to be with the one he really loves. Frome was trapped from the beginning ever since Mattie Silver came to live with him and his wife. He soon came to fall in love with her, and out of love with his own wife. He was basically trapped in the instances of his life, society’s affect on the relationship, love, poverty, illness, disability, and life.
As one reads just the very few pages of the book, symbols are relevant here and there. One of the first symbols introduced is the town Starkfield. As one would mostly think Starkfield was nonetheless just a city name Wharton came up with. Meriam webster dictionary defines the prefix word “Stark” as bare, cold or empty appearance. It is now clear of how pivotal this symbol is to the story. Wharton uses this symbol to “symbolize the devastating and isolating effects of the harsh winters on the land” (Boodie). With this town we presume its an icy cold one due to the descriptions in the novel. This proceeds to the symbolism of the winter season which seems to be mostly in effect throughout the story. The winter season symbolizes feelings such as isolation and loneliness. As we all know, the winter brings on snow, ice, wind, coldness and even further in depth darkness and death. Throughout the story we see Frome hide himself in the nature of the town. With the symbolism of nature we see Ethan hiding himself through the harshness of the winter. Quoting Book Rags “ Ethan embodies the somber and bleak landscape of Starkfield itself.” With that said we can see the importance of the nature on the character’s characteristics.
Ethan Frome lives in the winter town of Starkfield, Massachusetts where "the storms of February…pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds…charged down to their support; and …Starkfield emerged from its six months' siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter" (Wharton, 5).
When Harmon states that Ethan has been in the town of Starkfield too many winters leads to the narrator finding out that Starkfield and the town members become emotionally buried under the snow covered blanket of Starkfield?s winters. Winter in Starkfield is depressing and cold and it seems to rub off on the residents of the town. People of the town say he is cold and depressing, simply because he has been in Starkfield too many winters.
While everyone is legally intitled to the pursuit of happiness, the truth of the matter is that very few ever achieve it. Ones morals, standards, conscious, or perhaps even fate, keep them from accepting a pure form of satisfaction. While a person can search and struggle their entire life for happiness, the truth of the matter is, that they will never be happy with what they have infront of them. The character Ethan, portrayed in Edith Whartons novel, Ethan Frome, is emotionally weak, he battles constantly with what he wants, how to get it, and what is ethically right. Ethan was obligated to care for his wife Zeena until death, but his misguided decisions lead him to be concerned only with his immediate happiness. Much like Ethan in Ethan Frome, people who concentrate on personal happiness, without factoring in personal responsibility, set themselves up for a painful reality check.
As he slouches in bed, a description of the bare trees and an old woman gathering coal are given to convey to the reader an idea of the times and the author's situation. "All groves are bare," and "unmarried women (are) sorting slate from arthracite." This image operates to tell the reader that it is a time of poverty, or a "yellow-bearded winter of depression." No one in the town has much to live for during this time. "Cold trees" along with deadness, through the image of "graves," help illustrate the author's impression of winter. Wright seems to be hibernating from this hard time of winter, "dreaming of green butterflies searching for diamonds in coal seams." This conveys a more colorful and happy image showing what he wishes was happening; however he knows that diamonds are not in coal seams and is brought back to the reality of winter. He talks of "hills of fresh graves" while dreaming, relating back to the reality of what is "beyond the streaked trees of (his) window," a dreary, povern-strucken, and cold winter.
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
Edith Wharton, a famous author of many outstanding books, wrote a chaotic love story entitled Ethan Frome. The story took place in the wintery town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. Wharton was a sophisticated young woman who found love in sitting down and holding people’s attention by way of a pen. Wharton wrote yet another thriller that told the tale of two love stricken people that barely found it possible to be together; which later forced them to fall into the temptation of love that cannot be controlled. Wharton had many different writing styles but for different books meant different needs. In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, frustration and loneliness play roles in disappointment while imagery, symbolism, and individual responsibility provide the novel with a tortuous plot.
Perhaps the vast array of seasons and weather patterns hold the town to a unique appeal. In the fall, the crisp and cool breeze wafts through the fallen leaves, blanketing the lawns and streets in a warm, orange hue. In the winter, icy gusts chill the terrain, followed by the gentle fall of snowflakes. With time, the town is coated in
Tale of the Living Dead 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 emotionally dead. The characters have been emotionally dead since the "smash-up" in which Ethan and Mattie crashed their sled into a tree.
Ethan is not happy with his life and feels that it is his obligation to stay on the farm and work like his parents had “readers discover a man who feels overwhelmed by family responsibilities and who cannot free himself from what he believes to be family expectations.” (Witkosky). This obligation, and what Ethan believes to be his family expectations, ultimately helped lead to his decision in staying in Starkfield and not pursuing a happier life with Mattie elsewhere. Ethan also feels that even though all of his family members had died a long time ago, he still senses their presence, and he feels pressured to continue the family custom “Ethan senses their presence; in his eyes, the headstones on their graves, located near his farm, are like sentinels who guard and enforce family custom.” (Witkosky). Lastly the location of the Frome household in rural Massachusetts did not help the fact of Ethan’s isolation and his inability to socialize with others. Wharton symbolizes this loneliness and isolation by giving the town of Starkfield a cold and frozen setting, which is symbolic towards Ethan’s inability to move forward in his life “, the lack of social mobility in rural Massachusetts plays a role in Ethan's acceptance of the idea that he has no chance for advancement.” (Witkosky). Ethan’s ability to not being able to move forward
His isolation manifests itself throughout the book with either characters speaking about him, or through depictions of the author, Edith Wharton. One example where this unveils itself is when Harmon, who develops a lot of the town gossip, speculates on the cause of Ethan Frome 's ruined and prematurely aged appearance. He speaks about Ethan saying, “Guess he 's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away” (Wharton 6). His remark expresses the theme of the landscape 's shaping of character and fate. This describes the theme of isolation as it says that Ethan has been in Starkfield too long, and is essentially isolated. Here, it becomes apparent that through his stay in Starkfield, an ironically stark place, he transforms into an isolated human being. Another way in which Ethan’s isolation becomes apparent occurs in the prologue, where Wharton describes Ethan in comparison to the setting of the book. Wharton exclaims he represents “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… in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access” (Wharton 14). The book takes place in the fictional place of Starkfield,