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Ethan Frome Character Analysis Essay

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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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A long time resident of Starkfield, the protagonist Ethan Frome shows he is considerate by caring for and helping others. He first shows this trait when he gives up his desire to live in a city to support his ill mother. Though he has a strong wish to leave Starkfield, he respects his duty and cares for his mother. Ethan also shows this attribute to Zeena, by looking after her and contributing to her medicine while she also falls ill. Zeena is again thought of by Ethan when the pickle dish breaks.

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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.

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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.

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