Mattie proceeds to complain while she’s working in the garden about being called ‘Little,’ “Little Mattie, indeed. I was big enough to be ordered around like an unpaid servant. Big enough for mother to grumble about finding me a husband.”(12). Mattie begins
Mattie becomes resilient and thrives on her own after Grandfather has been killed. She also winds up taking care for not just herself, but for other children she has found that are in need of someone’s care due to the fact that they are impoverished. In the book, Mattie finds grown potatoes claiming that “Supper was a royal feast of boiled potatoes seasoned with a scrawny turnip and a few beans. But there was enough to ease the ache in our stomachs.”
Living in the Frome’s home she had to learn and adapt to a lifestyle she wasn’t custom to. Being that she was impoverished it caused her to behave sometimes inappropriately because she wasn’t used to anything. First, Mattie came to live in Starkfield because she was left with nothing after the death of her parents. Zeena her cousin was the only family member who was willing to take her in.(Shmoop) Mattie’s duty was to take care of Zeena and tend to the
“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.
I have been left with a feeling of despair after reading Ethan Frome. This novel was very challenging to read, but even more challenging to comprehend. This bleak novel is an account of the bitter life of Ethan Frome as the narrators perceives it to be. Wharton used a frame story to compare the Ethan Frome in the past and present. The narrator meets Ethan Frome in the beginning and then starts to piece together information about Frome’s life and how he managed to remain in the dreadful town of Starkville.
Ethan Sanford is an 15 year old boy. Through out his whole school life people thought of him as frolicsome... Others thought he was outgoing,but honestly they have no idea. Behind the smiles and jokes is a crestfallen boy. That 's until he meets Jessica Overton.
Being passionate about something always leads to death. To elaborate, when one is passionate about something, one feels like oneself has a duty to defend and protect what one is passionate about. For example, in Romeo and Juliet, they are both extremely passionate about one another and they get married after a few days of knowing one another. After their wedding, things go downhill and they end up killing themselves so they can be together. Also, in Ethan Frome, Ethan and Mattie desired to be with each other so he offered to drive her somewhere and it turned into them trying to kill themselves by hitting a tree so they could also be together.
In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton depicts Ethan as a tragic hero who gets downtrodden by his circumstances and mainly, his personality. He has the tragic flaw of not being willing to put anyone in pain even if he benefits from it. Through this, he gets blocked from pursuing an education when he must care for his ill parents. Consequently, he also doesn’t get to socialize with other people of his age, making him feel awfully lonely. To further his tragic predicament, he marries Zeena, his cousin who arrives to take care of his mother and unfortunately, she prevents him from pursuing his love for nature and engineering by wanting to stay in Starkfield forever for her own ego.
Right off. ‘ she panted, ‘so’t we’ll never come up any more” (p.90). His decision to leave with Mattie was probably one of the worst choices he could have made. Not only did he mess up his life, and his relationship with Zeena. He also ruined Mattie’s life by going down that hill and running into the elm causing her to be
Your personal fulfillment versus your duties can cause a rift in your life. Ethan Frome was in competition with the duties for his wife and his personal happiness and choosing to be with Mattie. He had to always choose on the important things in his life. This very thing caused confusion in his life. The author uses point of view , imagery, and the setting to show how Ethan’s feelings were portrayed about both women in the book and his life.
“Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away” (Wharton 13). The setting of the novel Ethan Frome creates an atmosphere which helps establish the character of Ethan Frome himself. Ethan is a man living a very depressing life in Starkfield, Massachusetts with his wife Zeena, whom he doesn't feel affectionate towards and only married because he's afraid to be alone. The environment he’s in is the only reason why he fell in love with Mattie.
Mattie senses she is disliked by Zeena, especially with all of “Zenobia’s fault finding..” (Wharton) with her work. Knowing that a relative wants nothing to do with her establishes a certain feeling she would rather discard. Mattie hopes for nothing more then peace and tranquility but falling for Zeena’s husband deposits an obstacle between her and Zeena that simply can’t be resolved. The rupture of the pickle dish signifies the rupture of Mattie’s
Ethan’s bad choices of leaving school, feeling lonely and marrying Zeena and then also being avoidant when he wants to leave her. Obviously, Ethan Frome’s tragedy is all caused by his personal decisions. One of many ignorant choices Ethan makes is when his mother gets ill, somewhere in the beginning of the story. During this time, Ethan dropped out of college.
Melissa Palacios English 3A Feb. 21 2017 The novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is about a tragic hero, Ethan who is not in love with his wife, but another person named Mattie. An important symbol in this novel is a pickle dish. This dish symbolizes Ethan’s relationship with his wife. The pickle dish first appears in chapter 4 of the novel.
The tragic novella of Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton focuses on adultery in rural New England. Stressing the importance of relationships, the narrator tells the story of Ethan Frome, a man searching for love. Despite being married to his cousin Zeena, he only views this civil union as a moral obligation. Then, he ventures into an adulterous relationship with Mattie Silver, and begins to understand what love is really about. The author often focuses on a red pickle dish, a treasured wedding gift, which unexpectedly shatters.
