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Gender Criticism In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

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Ethan Frome Critical Analysis Essay Gender criticism applies heavily to the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Wharton makes it apparent that gender roles only limit the potential of people and that they can even destroy relationships. Wharton conveys these ideas through the main characters, Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena. Starting with Ethan. Wharton uses him to show the problems gender roles can create in a marriage and everyday life in general. Ethan marries Zeena because that’s his options. Zeena agrees because she’s already been living with him and there isn’t much difference. They assume the normal husband-and-wife roles and continue living. Zeena did the cooking (until she got “sick”) and Ethan did the farming. However, this could be why
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116 Words | 1 Pages

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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984 Words | 4 Pages

“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.

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1427 Words | 6 Pages

In fact, the only reason Ethan and Zeena married each other was for the desperate demand for money due to sickness, first with the poor health of Ethan’s mother and then the sickness of Zeena. They were stuck in a cycle of finding money just to take care of each other, especially since all the debt that accumulated from the farm was now stuck to their name. While some people were constrained by money, others went out to look for ways out, such as in the story, “A Wagner Matinee,” which illustrates Aunt Georgiana, a young Boston music teacher, who decides to marry a younger man named Howard Carpenter. The author explains, “Carpenter, who of course had no money, took a homestead in Red Willow County, fifty miles from the railroad... They built a dugout in the red hillside, one of those cave dwellings whose inmates usually reverted to the conditions of primitive savagery.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

Ethan Frome, the story of a man with a difficult romantic triangle between his wife and her cousin constructed by Edith Wharton. The tragic outcome of the story was slowly created throughout the story due to the faulty actions of Zeena. Some of which fell under the categories of playing pity games, attention seeking exertions, and improper/poor decision making within the entire story. I believe without the faulty acts taken by Zeena within the relationship and close surrounding subjects between herself and Ethan, there would have never been a “seed” to sprout from. Throughout the story Zeena played plenty of pity games giving Ethan more motive to feel uneasy in regards to their relationship fundamentals.

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1441 Words | 6 Pages

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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1008 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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369 Words | 2 Pages

The Fulfilment of Desire In the novella, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the theme of desire is the most prominent throughout the book. The book focuses on the love and desire that Ethan Frome has for his wife’s relative, Mattie Silver. The fulfilment of desire plays not only a key role in Ethan Frome but also in society. In society, we often desire people or things that we can not obtain.

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1127 Words | 5 Pages

(Wharton, 27) but with Zeena that was not the case. Mattie’s youth gave Ethan a reminder of what he could have had in his own youth, she reminded him of his dreams and that he had missed his opportunity to escape Starkfield. All of this was in Ethan’s mind. Although Mattie did not have a hand in placing these thoughts in his head, her presence made him realize what he could have had, and in return it gave him more of a reason to blame Zeena for his

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550 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

That looks on tempests and is never shaken” (Lines 1-7). In Edith Wharton’s classic, Ethan Frome, this theme is present for protagonist Ethan Frome, who falls in love with his maid, Mattie, and forsakes his wife, Zeena. Ethan and Mattie’s flirtation with infidelity sets a catastrophic series of events into play: Zeena is jilted by the lovers’ betrayal, Mattie asks for the irrational way out of her situation, and all three characters make destructive decisions. Ethan’s indifference toward his wife and lack of compassion for her illnesses clearly demonstrates Ethan and Zeena’s loveless relationship.

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615 Words | 3 Pages

First Generations: Women of Colonial America, written by Carol Berkin, is a novel that took ten years to make. Carol Berkin received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She has worked as a consultant on PBS and History Channel documentaries. Berkin has written several books on the topic of women in America. Some of her publications include: Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence (2004) and Civil War Wives: The Life and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant (2009).

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1447 Words | 6 Pages

Zeena is stuck in her loveless marriage with Ethan due to societal pressures. Wharton writes, “He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute” (124). Zeena becomes dependent on her husband, and

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642 Words | 3 Pages

This references to the theme: society and morality as obstacles to individual desires. Society is unanimously known for constraining people from following their individual desires. Thus, the marriage that binds Ethan and Zeena together is valued and viewed as something sacred. Ethan's desire to want to commit adultery would dishonor their marriage and is viewed upon in society.

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1006 Words | 5 Pages

Melissa Palacios English 3A Feb. 21 2017 The novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is about a tragic hero, Ethan who is not in love with his wife, but another person named Mattie. An important symbol in this novel is a pickle dish. This dish symbolizes Ethan’s relationship with his wife. The pickle dish first appears in chapter 4 of the novel.

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738 Words | 3 Pages

Both Zeena and Ethan have varying responses, however both showing some commitment to repair their union. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton utilizes a broken pickle dish, to represent the views of espousement, and the representation of their varied human actions. Ethan and Zeena Frome’s marriage represents a union based on obligation rather that love. Throughout the story, Ethan is a weak and submissive husband under the control of a domineering wife.

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