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An Omniscient Narrator In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

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Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Edith Wharton’s naturalist novel, Ethan Frome, is written using the point of view from an omniscient narrator. The details included about the narrator, such as the fact that he is an engineer who is not from Starkfield, allows for Wharton to control which aspects of the characters are explicitly revealed and what is left to the interpretation of the reader as they learn about Mattie, Ethan, and Zeena. This inclusion of an omniscient narrator, who has no personal ties to the characters, allows for the development of the relationship between Mattie, Ethan, and Zeena to play out with an increased sense of realism as Wharton builds a frame narrative, irony, and gaps of knowledge within the novel. Frame narrative plays …show more content…

This telling of a tragic story is able to influence the readers to romanticize the story of Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena, while the novel itself stays true to its naturalist roots. This is important in the development of the plot and the audiences connect to the characters as the readers begin to root on the forbidden love that Ethan and Mattie have, and then in turn, by the end of the novel have pity for all characters. Towards the end of the novel, the narrator has a conversation with Mrs. Hale about what he saw, which gives the readers yet another perspective of the story. “Mrs. Hale answered simply: ‘There was nowhere else for her to go;’ and my heart simply tightened at the thought of the hard compulsions of the poor” (pg. 179). This interaction between the narrator and Mrs. Hale further allows for irony to emerge as their descriptions of the emotions they felt towards the accident influence how the reader feels. The audience find themselves feeling sorrowful for all the characters have been through, and especially in regards to Ethan and Mattie. This is interesting when looking at the situation of Ethan cheating on Zeena, as in most writing the audience does not feel sympathy when an affair does not go as the character planned. The irony felt within the description of Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena’s life would not be possible without Wharton’s intentional inclusion of the narrator’s bias and

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“Is fate getting what you deserve, or deserving what you get?” (Jodi Picoult). Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton in 1911, embodies this quote. In Ethan Frome, all three main characters, Ethan, Mattie and Zeena have made decisions that will affect the rest of their lives. Ethan and Mattie had an inappropriate relationship behind Ethans significant other, Zeena 's, back which caused each of them to be emotionally distraught.

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The epilogue held many interesting sections but the statement that Mrs. Hales made about how miserable Ethan Frome’s life has become with two women that have imprisoned him with their issues. The quote is an inside about life for Frome after the incident, Mattie who use to be his joy has become an exact copy of his wife and the statement illustrates that his imprisonment of the two women has become in a way like death to him. The importance of the statement of Mrs. Hales is that it allows the reader to understand the events that have lead on after the incident and that things are not as they use to be, instead of Frome and Mattie having a loving life it has become full of misery. Mrs. Hale mentions how if Mattie had died Frome’s life would've

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John Fernandez Survey American Lit. 3/15/23 The Fates of the main characters in the story Ethan Frome are not deserved but happen because of the choices they make. Ethan Frome and his Lover Mattie silver find themselves in a failed suicide pact and end up having to be taken care of by Ethan's wife Zeena for the rest of their lives. Zeena Fate in the story is she has to take care of Ethan and Mattie after their failed suicide. Zeena doesn’t deserve but caused her fate was she didn’t know that Ethan and Mattie were trying to kill themselves because it would have been better than living apart from each other.

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Authors often write books in an attempt to express their own feelings in the text, which will often become displayed as biased. The readers have an unbiased viewpoint towards the actions in the book and can easily persuade the reader to question morals and actions of the characters. In “Ethan Frome”, “Of Mice and Men”, and In Cold Blood, the authors set up the books to persuade the readers feelings towards the characters and question the morality of the situations. Information in “Ethan Frome” comes directly from one main source, Ethan, which causes mostly all of the story to sound biased. Zeena’s character in the story seems as if she has no value in Ethan’s life and continuously described by Ethan as a very negative person.

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