Gender Expectations In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Gender Expectations in Ethan Frome

Throughout time, men and women have lived together. Now, whether they lived equal is a different point. The designated gender expectations laid upon each individual from the time of birth is typical, and we see these expectations everywhere. Even small examples like how girls are supposed to love pink, and boys blue, are imprinted in the minds of everyone. Edith Wharton, author of the famous novel Ethan Frome, developed her characters around the gender expectations of her time. Wharton stuck to gender normative characteristics by following the traditional gender roles when creating the characters in Ethan Frome. We see the typical "female role" in all three main women; Zeena Frome, Mattie Silver, and Mrs.

The wife of Ethan and an extreme hypochondriac, Zeena has been living her time either ill in the home, or traveling around to expensive doctors. Zeena first met Ethan when she took care of his sick mother, and then ended up marrying the lonely Ethan when her job was done. It is easy to say that Ethan just wanted a housewife, he saw how well Zeena took care of his mother and he knew he wanted someone like that. Zeena agreed to this because she lived only to her domestic duties, something she was raised to do. The typical “get married, stay home” idea was extremely common and encouraged for women. It wasn’t only Zeena who followed this idea, but many other women in the town. Mrs. Ned Hale is a perfect example of another housewife, we rarely heard of her outside of the house, because she was constantly inside doing chores. Wharton doesn’t even give her a name, rather she is referred to as the wife of her husband. The character was one dimensional because she was a woman. It was only after marriage that Zeena became sick, and even then she never truly left the house. Not many people think much of Zeena never leaving the house, or say anything about how she never gets better. This is because the residents of Starkfield believed that women belong in the home, a gender role that was extremely popular in the time of this novel. When the chores became too much for her, Mrs. Frome took in a newly

Frome desperately tried to live up to the “man’s role”, and considered it necessary to ever become accomplished. He wanted to work with his hands, make all the money, and marry a beautiful woman to live at home. Sadly for him, he is not able to accomplish any of this. Ethan loses all control to Zeena because of her obsession with illness, and then he becomes passive and despises her because of it. It is only because Ethan is not able to fulfill what he thinks is the appropriate gender role for his life. Zeena and Ethan’s relationship is a constant power struggle, and he finds solace and stability in Mattie, because she is young and naive. Ethan grows to Mattie extremely quickly, and jumps to the conclusion that she automatically loves him back. While this may be the case, it was still a play on his masculine side, because for so long he was treated as less of the man in charge. When he found someone who was submissive, he fell into a delusion that he finally found the perfect person. Ethan then makes an extremely rash decision, to take both his and Mattie’s own life just to escape Zeena. Many would consider this a weak move, but it is because Ethan believes he can’t separate from his wife, back then divorce was looked down upon. Ethan is not in touch with his emotions at all, because he was raised to not focus on an emotional side, because it isn’t masculine. He hardly knew Zeena when he married her, he hardly knew