Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton Edith grew up in New York City in a wealthy, fashionable family. At the age of twenty-three, she met and married a friend of her brother. The two were quite dissimilar, and it was clear very early that the marriage was a mistake. Because of the society in which they lived, however, a divorce was out of the question, and it was not until thirty years later that she obtained a divorce. Significantly perhaps, the author’s husband, who was fourteen years older that she was, began to have health problems. In her autobiography, she comments that he complained a great deal and verbally abused her when he was ill. In Ethan Frome, the parallels between Wharton’s life and Ethan’s are unmistakable.

Literary Elements Imagery – the use of words to evoke impressions and meanings that are more than just the basic, accepted definitions of the words themselves. Motif -- a situation, incident, idea, or image that is repeated significantly in a literary work. Symbol – an object, person, or place that has a meaning in itself and that also stands for something larger than itself, usually an idea or concept; some concrete thing which represents an abstraction.

Frame Story – a story that surrounds another story or that serves to link several stories together. The frame is the outer story, which usually precedes and follows the inner, more important story. Tragic Hero – the main character in a tragedy; in order to fit the definition, the hero must have a tragic flaw, which causes his or her downfall. Novella – a short novel.

Ethan Frome Ethan Frome is a bitter and ironic tragedy of three people trapped in a setting they cannot escape. Setting – The main action of the novel takes place in the late nineteenth century in Starkfield, Massachusetts. It is recounted by a narrator some twenty-four years later. Ethan Frome, an inarticulate small farmer and sawmill operator, struggles to express his love for a young woman who comes to live with him and his mean-spirited, hypochondriacal wife.

Main Characters Narrator -- a young visiting engineer who pieces together the story of Ethan Frome from various sources in Starkfield. Ethan Frome – an impoverished New England farmer and sawmill operator, twenty-eight years old at the time of the main story. He is an inarticulate man of passionate feelings, romantic longings, and unrealized dreams. Harmon Gow -- former Starkfield stagecoach driver and “village oracle.”

Mrs. Ned Hale (Ruth Varnum) -- the narrator’s talkative widowed landlady. Denis Eady -- cheerful young man who admires and flirts with Mattie in the main story and later becomes a well-to-do grocer. Mattie Silver -- Zeena Frome’s cousin who comes to live with the Fromes. Lively yet delicate, she becomes the object of Ethan’s romantic yearnings.

Zeena (Zenobia) Frome -- Ethan’s wife, seven years his senior Zeena (Zenobia) Frome -- Ethan’s wife, seven years his senior. A bitter, domineering woman, jealous and fearful, obsessed with her own illnesses. Andrew Hale -- Starkfield house builder who, like Ethan, has fallen on hard times. Jotham Powell -- Frome’s hired hand, a man of few words.

Thoughts to Ponder How much of who we are depends on our circumstances? How greatly does our own attitude towards these circumstances affect our choices? Is it possible to follow one’s own inclinations as well as fulfill family or group responsibilities? Can you relate to the conflict between doing what you think will make you happy and what you believe to be morally right?

Themes Conflicts existing between personal inclinations and group obligations. How much control do we have over the choices we make? Is suicide ever a solution? People need to communicate openly with one another. How do we know what is true or real?

Interesting Facts Although it is often called an American classic, Ethan Frome was originally written in French. Wharton had hired a tutor to help her improve her command of the language. Too polite to correct her speech, the tutor suggested that she produce written exercises. The result was the first version of the story, written in a small black notebook. Not only was the original French version much shorter than the final English one but the main character was named Hart, not Ethan, and the ending was completely different. With the French version, however, Wharton had established the framework for the novella.

Frame Story A frame story is a story within a story. The “frame” is an outer story that precedes and follows a more important inner story. In Ethan Frome, the outer story is the narration by a visitor to Starkfield. He tells how he put together the facts about Ethan Frome’s accident. The inner story that relates the events leading up to the climactic accident is told in flashback.

Narrator and Point of View In Ethan Frome, the narrator of the frame tale is an engineer who is visiting Starkfield on a job assignment. In the beginning, he tells the story from the first-person point of view, referring to himself as I. The reader knows only what he knows. However, when Chapter 1 begins, the point of view shifts to the third-person limited, and the thoughts and feelings of one character exclusively—Ethan, referred to as he, because the reader is seeing the events through his eyes.

TRAPPED In modern times, human beings are accustomed to having free will. If they do not like their job, they can quit. If they despise their spouse, they can get divorced. If they hate where they live, they can move. With the cold, unforgiving winters of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, her characters do not share this luxury. Holds are placed on Ethan’s life, so much so that they influence or dictate everything he does. Starkfield is a cold binding place, unable to release all those who feel they must leave. The past always shapes the future, and Ethan has had a very unfortunate past. His wife’s implacable command places Ethan at her mercy. The only chance of freedom, Mattie Silver, turns out to be a farce. Ethan’s “passion of rebellion” is present but is unable to manifest itself due to the confining conditions of his predicament. The suicide attempt represents a last ditch effort to escape and fails. Sickness plays a vital role in Wharton’s work. Ethan’s illness, in a sense, is not cause by any shortcomings of character, but rather, is the sorrowful consequences of a life devoid of free will, where society and circumstances bring about his grim fate.

Foreshadowing: The repeated references to sledding being dangerous foreshadow the climactic scene in which Ethan and Mattie crash into the elm. The narrator introduces the main character as a ruined man who has had an accident, foreshadowing that his relationship with Mattie will end tragically. Motifs: 1. Illness and Disability: Illness in the characters’ physical states indicates that, inwardly, they are all in states of destitution and decline. All of the main characters suffer from illness and disability at various times during the novel. 2. Snow and Cold: The story is built around cold, ice and white snow The characters constantly complain about the cold, and the climactic scene uses sledding for the attempted suicide. These motifs work to emphasize the novel’s larger theme of winter as a physically and psychologically stifling force.

Symbols: 1.Mattie’s red scarf and red ribbon: Red is the color of blood, ruddiness, good health, and vitality, all of which Mattie has in abundance, and all of which Zeena lacks. In the oppressive white landscape of Starkfield, red stands out, just as Mattie stands out in the oppressive landscape of Ethan’s life. Red is also the color of transgression and sin, relating to Ethan and Mattie’s secret love affair. 2. Zeena’s Cat and Pickle Dish: The cat symbolizes Zeena’s tacit invisible presence in the house, as a negative force that comes between Mattie and Ethan,  reminding them of the wife’s existence. Meanwhile, the breaking of the dish, Zeena’s favorite wedding present, symbolizes the downfall of the Frome marriage. 3. The Final Sled Run: Ethan’s decision to go through with his final sled run symbolizes his inability to escape his dilemma through action of any kind.

Winter: isolation, cold, loneliness, immobility, "stark"(haha) Dead vine: dead spirits in house and graveyard Cushion: rejection of Zeena Farmhouse: lost "L", forlorn, lonely Red pickle dish: got for marriage, cat breaks it, red for passion, Zeena treasures it Elm tree: fate Cat: Zeena Butterfly: freedom Mattie's hair: freedom, happiness, openness, beauty, love Zenna's hair: crimped, confined by pins

Themes: Lack of communication in marriage leads to misery. Lack of assertiveness leads to lack of control. Failure to assert oneself is a negation to life. Poverty and isolation crush the human soul. Man has limited control over fate. One can never fulfill his desires for complete passion when an inordinate sense of responsibility interferes. In order to fulfill your own happiness you have to hurt or gravely disappoint a family member or a friend. What would you do, and why? Is hurting another person ever justified? What price are you willing to pay for personal happiness?