Ethan Frome, who has to face multiple conflicts throughout the book with his nonstop dream to be an engineer which is crushed due to the illness of, Zeena, his cousin, but who also happens to be his wife. Also a love begins to grow mid way through the book between a girl named Mattie and Ethan, even though he is still married to Zeena which ultimately leads to the distance between their love. In the book Ethan Frome, the feeling of isolation in Ethan and Zeena becomes more prominent, while anger grows between Ethan and Mattie from having denying their love, which contributes to the many mistakes and downfalls Ethan has to face throughout the book.
The sky, swollen with the clouds that announce a thaw, hung as low as before a summer storm.” Throughout the novel, there is also a very visible overarching theme of determinism. Determinism, the theme in this novel, is the philosophy that all events are caused by an individual’s environment and prior events outside of an individual’s control. One example is Ethan’s marriage to Zeena. He married Zeena because “he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm,” (59).
“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.
In chapter two, Ethan quotes “... It was during their night walks back to the farm that felt most intensely the sweetness of this communication…” Zeena’s streak of jealousy caused her verdict for Mattie to leave, without
Ethan being left all alone lead him to marry the only person around Zeena who had been taking care of his mom. Ethan's marriage with Zeena was a very poor decision by the two, they both were unhappy with the relationship they had but Zeenas parents thought that it was the least he could do for taking care of his mom. “Yes; and my folks all told me at the time you couldn't do no less than marry me after” page 42 Another choice that led to Ethan's fate was that of deciding to not let Jotham Powell take Mattie to the train station and do it himself. “I want you should stay here this afternoon, Ethan,” his wife said. “Jotham can drive Mattie over.”
For instance, if Tom had never believed he was about to die, he may have never brought himself to notice he had need neglecting his wife for the sake of his job. Unfortunately, many people in the world do not realize that they are making bad decisions since they believe they are doing what is needed. And while sometimes it is easier to notice other people are not treasuring what is truly important, it is not uncommon that people are blinded to their own faults. For instance, sometimes people do not recognize who in their life is hurting them, however, they continue to prioritize the wrong people or things, as did Tom
Ethan is vexed with acquiescing to Zeena's requests, which starts the original attention toward Mattie. After Zeena expresses all her frustration towards Mattie about the broken pickle dish, Mattie knows that Ethan will interfere but does not want him to. Mattie describes this through a note to Ethan, which gives him a "strange new sense of her nearness; yet it deepened his anguish by reminding him that henceforth they would have no other way of communication with each other" (55). Ethan now starts to feel closer to Mattie, realizing that he will not be able to communicate with Mattie in the future, further reducing Zeena's importance to Ethan. There have also been rumors about Dennis Eady supposedly marrying Mattie, which Ethan and Zeena had been stressing about.
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.
Although Ethan’s conscience can distinguish right from wrong, he won’t commit to his true desires. He’s afraid of what the future will hold for himself and those who rely on
Forcing Mattie to leave is Zeena’s desperate attempt at solving the love triangle. Zeena hoped that Mattie leaving would guide Ethan and Zeena back to their original relationship without distractions. However, Zeena could not have anticipated that the lovers’ prospective separation is needed for them to confess their feelings for each other and the culmination of the painful saga. The story comes to a climax when Mattie says “we’d never have to leave each other any more” referring to their suicide and unity in death (Wharton 63). Ethan agrees to her solution and the problem of their living apart is solved.
He is not thinking at a higher intellect level to do so otherwise.
His fragile and fragmented ego and superego are not able to repress these wants that the id bombards them with. Therefore leading to his insanity. Although when trying to figure out why his daughters have abandoned he attempts to rationalize these events using his ego and superego but he is too blinded by his id to realize that his demise is of his own fault.
The need to do something, anything is sometimes over-whelming. Angry People shout, throw things, punch walls, hit spouses and shoot people. None of these behaviors are the signs of rational decision making.” (Noll, Elusive Peace, 2011). Many people can argue that losing control of yourself is not a good thing especially if the fate of the people is on your shoulders and if you have an important position as the President of any country as people believe in your ability to lead them by making rational decisions.
This quality can be seen when Anns say “He wanted to maim not to kill me.” This displays his control trait, because he wanted to shoot Ann in the leg. He didn’t want to kill her he wanted to hurt he just so she would become dependant upon him again. This would give him all the control over Ann especially in her now weakened
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.
