Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a gothic novel set in the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts in the early 1800’s regarding the life of the unlucky Ethan. The story explains Ethan’s tragic backstory as it recounts the people in his life he had to take care of. Ethan is now stuck taking care of hypochondriac wife Zeena. Zeena is a manipulating and controlling wife which drives Ethan to be separated emotionally from her. The story further progresses as the narrator presents the close relationship he begins with Zeena’s cousin Mattie. This book, which also has moments of romanticism, expresses the forbidden love Mattie and Ethan hold from the beginning of the story to the climax, and Gothicism is the main plot element incorporated into the novel that is displayed in many of the interactions between Mattie and Ethan and the gloomy backdrop of their dismal existence. One of the subtle reasons Gothicism is displayed in the novel is by the display of Zeena’s …show more content…
Ethan compares Mattie’s face as “part of the sun’s red and of the pure glitter on the snow” (Wharton 38). Romanticism involves poetic talk of “the underlying spirit of nature produced [by] an intense, subjective experience” (Text 3, Line 17). These scenes only last a few moments but Gothicism encroaches the tender scenes whether it be by Zeena, the cat, or the somber weather that encompasses this small town. Mattie is Ethan’s only hope of temporary escape and they go as far as attempting suicide to end taking care of the dreadful Zeena. The suicide attempt gone wrong is another hint to gothic literature because Ethan and Mattie are now the ones stuck being taken care of by the one person they hate. The lack of a sweet ending is further exemplified by the distinct difference of Mattie’s cheerful personality. She has turned into a carbon copy of Zeena’s cold atmosphere and Ethan perpetually lives in a