Oppression Exposed In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

It is a common desire of an individual to have wealth, contentment, and the satisfaction of being prosperous. However, a plethora of situations can arise to induce oppression within an individual's life, impeding them from this fulfillment. In the novella, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, the three preeminent characters of, Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie, as seen through a Marxist lens, present attributes of being oppressed as a result of their difficult socioeconomic and family situation, which leads to upheaval within their household. It can be asserted that as this story progresses the characters oppression increases as they are presented with economic hardships, personal struggles, and family mistreatment that restricts them from achieving their

Throughout the duration of the novella, Zeena is certain that she is the bearer of a worsening sickness. However, Ethan is skeptical of this, and as a result questions the prognosis the expensive doctors provide her with. The novella indicates this disagreement when it states, “Turning her head at this, she answered solemnly: ‘I'm a great deal sicker than you think’”(Wharton 68). As indicated by the quote, Zeena believes that she is plagued with a kidney disease, a main constraint endured by the characters. To further explain, it not only provides Zeena with confinement to her home, but it also means that Ethan must work to take care of the farm and the house, restricting him from having time for himself. In addition, Zeena’s sickness is not only an oppressive force acting upon her, but it results in her being oppressive or cruel to Mattie, who had already struggled through many acts of misfortune within her young life. To further explain, before Mattie had gone to stay with the Frome family, she experienced many losses and an inability to survive on her own. The novella provides the reader with the following information, “His wife died of the disclosure, and Mattie, at twenty, was left alone to make her way on the fifty dollars obtained from the sale of her piano. For this purpose her equipment, though varied, was inadequate” (Wharton 37). This indicates that after losing both her father and her stepmother, Mattie had only a small amount of money from selling her piano, and limited skills to earn her the pay she required to be independent. Thus, she was forced to stay with the only relatives that would take her in, Ethan and Zeena. These following characteristics of Mattie could be described as dictorical because as seen again, her oppressive economic troubles obligated her to live within the oppressive town and