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.
Let’s start with Ethan Frome. The women in Ethan Frome are two completely different people with different personalities. They are both portrayed in two completely different ways. Mattie is portrayed as a women who everyone envisions a women being, sweet, caring, helpful, and very nice. Zeena is portrayed as someone who’s always depressed and mad about everything, she’s crazy, sickly, jealous, and controlling.
Mattie, Zeena and Ethan were all responsible for their own actions which resulted in them getting what they deserved. Ethan Frome was a young, 28 year old man, who lived in Starkfield, Massachusetts and was married to Zenobia Frome. Zeena helped care for Ethan’s mother when she was dying, which is how they got to know each other. After the death of his mother, Ethan began
Mattie is panicked and worried when the pickle dish is knocked over and destroyed by the cat, and 3. Ethan is trying to figure a way out to repair or get a new pickle dish. Each of these represent different parts of Ethan and Zeena’s marriage and the relationship between the three characters. In Ethan Frome, the pickle dish is kept up high on the shelf so that nobody can get to it.
As Ethan and Mattie are eating, the cat interferes by causing the dish to fall. The plate breaks into multiple pieces. The dish mainly represents the broken relationship of Ethan and his wife, Zeena, after Mattie arrives. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton uses a pickle dish to symbolize Ethan and Zeena’s relationship in the past, and future.
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.
Neither Ethan nor Mattie, the ones actually enacting the transgression, were the ones to break the dish. It was the cat, by-proxy Zeena, who broke the dish; she, it, saw that her marriage to Ethan may as well be over. The broken pickle dish symbolizes both Ethan and Zeena’s broken marriage and their broken trust. Their relationship will never be the same again, and Zeena now has physical confirmation of the feeling she's had for years: Ethan has moved on from here. However, Zeena hasn't done much to keep him
The story, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton is about a man who is married to a women named Zeena. Ethan and Zeena have a servant who works at their house named Mattie, who happens to be Zeena’s cousin. Throughout the entirety of this novel, Ethan catches feelings for his wife’s cousin, Mattie. Although, he is still married to Zeena he does not want to be. The story shows the evolution of Ethan’s feelings and attraction to their maid.
Ethan Frome is the pathetic protagonist in the novel Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton. While reading Ethan Frome it is painfully aware that he is anything but active in taking control of his life. Ethan is observed as extremely passive and a victim of the events happening in his life. Life circumstances, such as, Zeena’s unwavering control over his life, Zeena being constantly sick, and the unmoral love he has for Mattie are on Ethan's shoulders. Ethan is hit with life circumstance after circumstance and he never truly makes the effort to manage his life.
She talking about Ethan. She knows the pickle dish went out to make the table more romantic for Ethan and Mattie. It becomes a symbol of Ethan’s and Zeena’s lost love. She never did come out and say that Mattie is stealing Ethan from her. Zeena is a sneaky women and will get what she
Even though Ethan is a married man, he tends to have deep feelings for his wife’s sister. Mattie lives with both Ethan and her sister, Zeena. One day, Ethan’s wife, Zeena Frome, informs both Ethan and Mattie that she is going to be visiting a doctor. Once Zeena is gone, Ethan and Mattie both decide to get romantic and have a dinner for both of them. A bit further into the story, Zeena kicks Mattie out from their house.
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.
When Wharton published her writing, it always became controversial amongst the people because of the topics she chose to write about. Ethan Frome, the main character in this book, struggles in life for many reasons. He struggles because he was pulled from college and forced to take care of a run-down farm, and his parents during the end of their
Ethan Frome: An American America is popularly considered as the land of the free and the home of the brave. Its reputation necessarily implies that Americans are free and brave — ergo, they understand what they want in life and they try their best to reach their goals. Having the freedom to choose, however, is not without responsibilities. It is precisely this freedom that compels people to accept the consequences of their choices and actions whatever they may be in the end.
Ethan’s initial response is to attempt to simply piece back the pickle dish with glue. The use of glue or “the easy route” to fix the broken pickle dish so Zeena won’t discover the accident, symbolizes Ethan’s thought process to try repairing their loveless relationship. Furthermore, Ethan is afraid to even tell Zeena that the dish has broken which shows the lack of communication and understanding in their relationship. Zeena’s response is much more dramatic, by intensely accusing Mattie of not only breaking her most prized possession, but also threatening her husband and their marriage. Zeena’s anger and resentment over the broken pickle dish actually illustrates her sorrow over her broken and unfulfilling marriage.
