Cherokee High School

Edith Wharton  Edith Wharton was born Edith Jones in 1862 to a wealthy NY family  Raised to reflect the role of most society women: to be a good wife  Married to Edward Wharton in 1885

Edith Wharton  According to Claudia Roth Pierpont of The New Yorker Magazine, Wharton’s marriage was “a disaster: intellectually, emotionally, and above all sexually… “after what seems to have been one or two attempts at grappling with their mysterious bodies, Teddy and Edith lived together in celibacy for twenty-eight years.” They finally divorced in 1913, when divorce became more socially acceptable.

Edith Wharton  In 1907, she discovered that her husband had taken money from her to set up a mistress in Boston.  Wharton found temporary solace in an affair with the journalist Morton Fullerton, which coincided with the collapse of her marriage.  It was in the wake of this affair and her ensuing divorce that Wharton wrote many of her most successful and endearing works.

Edith Wharton  Suffered a series of nervous breakdowns in 1894  Published her first story in 1889  Writing grew out of emotional unhappiness  Lived in Paris during World War I

Edith Wharton  She never gave up the wealth into which she was born, as shown by her lavish Massachusetts mansion, “The Mount.”

 Historical Context—Victorian Era  In English literature, this was the period covered by the reign of Queen Victoria from  During these years, England experienced the apex of its ascendancy as a world power, having established an empire “on which the sun never set.”  England became the first nation to become truly industrialized, which turned out to be a mixed blessing, creating as it did massive social problems brought about by urban slums and social dissension.  Though this era originated in England, its influenced were felt in America, as well.  In literature, the social upheaval proved grist for the mill of novelists who probed the connections between the individual and his or her rapidly changing society.

Her Writings  Settling in Paris in the early 1910s, she became one of many American expatriates who rejected American society and its contradictions  She wrote & published Ethan Frome in 1911  Won the Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Innocence in 1921, becoming the first woman to do so

The Age of Innocence  First published in 1920  Recalls Wharton’s childhood in the 1870’s  Some consider it to be her “WWI” novel  Shows how oppressive societal traditions are

The Age of Innocence Major Themes:  Appearance vs. Reality  America as a place to start over  Individual vs. Society  The Quest for Individual Expression  Duty vs. desire

Ethan Frome  Ethan Frome (1911) is one of the few pieces of Wharton’s fiction that does not take place in an urban, upper-class setting.  Interestingly, Wharton based the narrative of the novel on an accident that occurred in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she traveled extensively and had come into contact with one of the victims of the accident.  Wharton found the notion of a tragic sledding crash to be irresistible as an extended metaphor for the wrongdoings of a secret love affair.

Ethan Frome  Ethan Frome (1911) is one of the few pieces of Wharton’s fiction that does not take place in an urban, upper-class setting.  Interestingly, Wharton based the narrative of the novel on an accident that occurred in Lenox, Massachusetts, where she traveled extensively and had come into contact with one of the victims of the accident.  Wharton found the notion of a tragic sledding crash to be irresistible as an extended metaphor for the wrongdoings of a secret love affair.

Ethan Frome - THEMES  Determinism vs Free Will  Duty vs Desire  Gender Roles in Marriage  Manipulation  Actions and Consequences

Ethan Frome - SYMBOLS  Mattie’s Red Scarf  The Pickle Dish  Winter (cold / death)  Steering the Sled?  Silence

 Edith Wharton:  In 1937, after nearly half a century of devotion to the art of fiction, Wharton died in her villa near Paris at the age of 75.  She remains one of America’s most cherished novelists.

 Quotes by Edith Wharton:  “There are two ways of reflecting light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”  “The only way not to think about money is to have a great deal of it.”  “I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, and consequently suggests more tugging, and pain, and diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.”  “How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be ‘American’ before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, and having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries?”

 Realism & Naturalism  Realism is, in art and literature, a term covering a broad range of views centered on the attempt to depict life as it is usually experienced, without recourse to miraculous events, larger-than-life characters, or supernatural intervention.  In a realistic text, the emphasis is on the way things are for ordinary people, whose behavior and speech mirror their social position and cultural attitudes.  In this sense, realism is the opposite of romance, which represents life as we would like it to be, or to other anti-realist approaches such as expressionism and impressionism.

 Realism & Naturalism  Naturalism was a late 19 th century movement in literature and art that grew out of realism.  The basic idea of naturalism lay in the idea that everyone becomes a victim of (and eventually overwhelmed by) their environment.  The motives and behaviors of characters are determined by heredity and environment.  The artist’s task is to reveal the role of these factors in the lives of the characters.