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Ethan Frome Character Analysis Essay

645 Words3 Pages

Winter Different emotions bubble up during certain seasons of the year. Humans tend to become effected by the weather rather easily depending on their personal opinion of that particular season. In Edith Wharton’s novella Ethan Frome, the cold winter has a strong presents within the book. Winter dominates the overall feel of the book through the impending misery and loneliness throughout the town. Winter is most often associated with despair and fear of the unknown. At the post office after talking to Ethan, he seems very concerned about him after seeing the cut on his face. He goes on to tell his friend there that Ethan has been in “Starksfield too many winters” (4). Ethan has been scared to leave Starksfield in fear he wouldn’t be able …show more content…

When Ethan was taking Mr. Hale to Corbury Flats during the icy winter months, Ethan was very cold to Mr. Hale every time they were together. Even when Hale was tried to make friendly conversation to Ethan all Hale saw was that “he never turned his face to mine” (7). Ethan chooses to make himself alone, and during the harsh winter he retract into himself and forget about his twisted personal life. Ethan doesn’t truly want to be friends with anyone else in the town, since all of his focus is being put towards Mattie; along with only looking out for himself. All of the people in Starksfield tend to become introverts when the winter months begin to hit. After discovering the Zeena will be sending Mattie away for a new hired girl, Ethan goes into a fit of rage trying to defend Mattie. His loneliness strives from Ethan believing Zeena had “taken everything from him” (44) through the winter months. The darkness and harshness of the winter creates isolation from the outside world, or for Ethan his wife telling him she had had enough of his affair. People choose to act in ways they normally don’t act, they feel like the people around them are out to get them, even when they are not. This in turn causes the people in Starksfield to dive deeper into their own personal lives. Which only causes more problems to surface which only leads to the need to further retract into their

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