Zeena Character Analysis

448 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Females in 20th century literature

There’s another factor that makes a drastic difference in the amount of freedom that Ethan has compared to the amount of freedom Zeena has. It’s the one thing that Zeena cannot change, no matter what and that is her gender. As a woman in the late 1890s to early 1900s, Zeena already has limited rights and then adding on her job as an acting cripple, the amount of freedom that she has is narrowed down even more. Mattie has a relatively healthy body and can move to wherever she can, assuming she has a sufficient amount of money. Ethan is a male and has a perfectly functioning body. His only worry is Zeena. Other than his needlessly aggravating wife, he has more freedom than the other two characters. Zeena has to, and wants to, adhere to the social norms so that she can feel …show more content…

Zeena is already unable to properly maintain the state of the house, which is one reason why Mattie was invited into their home to take care of both Zeena and the house. Zeena also has to look ladylike, as it was expected for women to dress well during that time. When Zeena goes to see the doctor at Bettsbridge, “…she wore her best dress of brown merino, and above her thin strands of hair… rose a hard perpendicular bonnet,” (Wharton 55). This shows that Zeena went out her way to change from her usual casual outfit to her best brown dress in order to look presentable as a woman. If it were Ethan, he could’ve just gone to the doctor’s wearing his usual outfit. In addition to the standard’s for women, Zeena has an inferiority complex. She cannot stand people looking down at her, or even think that people could have the chance to do so. The novella stated “She [Zeena] chose to look down on Starkfield, but she could not have lived in a place which looked down at her… in the cities which attracted Ethan she would have suffered a complete loss of identity,” (Wharton

Show More
Related

  • Character Analysis: The Liles Of The Field

    256 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,

    Read More

  • The Role Of Social Tragedy In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

    588 Words  | 2 Pages

    When Ethan was (is) young, he wants to leave the town to go to college. However, Ethan had to stay in the town with his sick mother. In addition, Ethan met Zeena when she came to his house to nurse his mother. After his mom passed away, Ethan

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome Symbolism Analysis

    604 Words  | 2 Pages

    He could not get away from Zeena, nor run away with the girl he felt drawn to. There was no way Ethan could afford to get away even if he tried. Ethan could not afford to pay for himself to leave town, nor could he provide for the woman he desired. He also imagines life as if he were suddenly resolved from all the issues going on in his life. All the issues that went on, Ethan brought upon himself due to the way he managed his life.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome Essay

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causes his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge, giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night.

    Read More

  • Personality In Ethan Frome

    858 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Free Essays on Wharton's Ethan Frome: Responsibilities

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethan Frome is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth’s lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life with many responsibilities and little freedom. Ethan Frome studied science in college for a year and probably would have succeeded as an engineer or physicist had he not been summoned home to run the family farm and mill. Ethan quickly ended his schooling and went to run the family farm and mill because he feels it is his responsibility. He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, in an unsuccessful attempt to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also feels the responsibility to marry Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his mother. After marring Zeena he forgets his hope of every continuing his education and he is now forced to remain married to someone he does not truly love.

    Read More

  • Trapped in Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

    911 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome: List of Quotes explained

    1263 Words  | 3 Pages

    This quote is explaining the feeling of Ethan when Mattie Silver comes into his home. Ethan was gloomy and pretty much sick of his wife and when Mattie comes to his house she brings hope and a whole new outlook on life to Ethan. Ethan feels that she is warm person and a polar opposite compared to Zeena. Her coming transforms Ethan?s cold and depressing existence.

    Read More

  • Failure In Ethan Frome

    452 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Ethan Frome Setting Analysis

    782 Words  | 2 Pages

    The setting of Starkfield, Massachusetts in the novel “Ethan Frome” has a direct bearing on Ethan’s actions and feelings. The reader follows main character Ethan Frome through the past, vicariously experiencing his hidden desire: to be with Mattie Silver. However a substantial obstacle in the way is his wife, Zeena, who additionally is Mattie's cousin. Other impediments that aren’t as self-evident include society, and Ethan’s inner morality.

    Read More

  • Modoc Onondaga Character Analysis

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Modoc, Onondaga, and Adam and Eve creation story, the female characters are perceived as curious, disobedient, and their titles made them dependent on their male counterparts, which made them disposable. In the Modoc creation story, the “youngest daughter” of the Chief of the Sky Spirits gets pulled out of the volcano by the wind, while doing a task for her father. However, her father never goes out looking for her. This shows that the Chief of the Sky Spirits doesn’t value his daughter, and views her as disposable. In the Onondaga myth, the “young wife” of the Ancient Chief fell through a hole in Skyland. Her husband never goes looking for her, which means that the Ancient Chief didn’t value his wife. The muskrat in the Onondaga myth

    Read More

  • Character Analysis

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    real reason he got blind. He knows that seeing the eclipse without protection wasn't the

    Read More

  • Character Analysis

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    The novel Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding. Golding wanted the story to be about a group of young boys whose plane crashed on an island, trying to escape war. The whole concept of this was so that he can show what a group of people can become given a set of inflicting conflicts that can change them for better or for worst. He gives great detail on how they go from sane to insane in a matter of time and turn into someone completely different all together. One of the boys on the island is named Simon. Simon’s personality and traits are similar to Jesus Christ because they both posse a form of insight, spirituality, and compassion.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Isolation In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

    2266 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • A Psychological Criticism In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

    1794 Words  | 4 Pages

    She becomes suspicious, noticing every little detail that Ethan does. Panicking, she figures out a way to save both of their relationship, by faking her illness to the next level and firing Mattie in order to get another maid. When Zeena developed her ‘sickliness,’ she “fell silent” (Wharton 39), because Ethan “never listened” (Wharton 39). Up to the point until Mattie came to live with them, she started to say more than she has ever said. She started to break her silence slowly because of her jealousy. “She grumble[s] increasingly over the house-work” (Wharton 18) and remarks that he’s “always late, [because he] shave[s] every morning” (Wharton 19). Zeena also “found oblique ways of attracting attention to [Mattie’s] inefficiency” (Wharton 18). Zeena, at this point of time in the novel, notices the strong connection that Ethan and Mattie have developed for each other. After Zeena speculates those things and tells Ethan, her “thrusts frightened him” (Wharton 19). He had “assumed that [Zeena] would not notice any change[s] in his appearance” (Wharton 20). Ethan is blind to Zeena’s perception. He seems to think the things that he has done with Mattie does not betray or deceive Zeena. He is ignorant of what is going around him. Despite Zeena’s ‘thrusts’ he doesn’t think anything of it. He continues his secretive relationship with Mattie, while Zeena notices his changes

    Read More

More about Zeena Character Analysis

Open Document