Point Of View Of Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

The book Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton tells the story of a young man’s life and the unfortunate outcome. The story takes place the winter season in the town of Starkfield around the time of “Trolley, bicycle, and rural delivery, when communication was easy between the scattered mountain villages, and the bigger towns in the valleys, such as Bettsbridge and Shadd’s Falls, had libraries, theatres, and Y.M.C.A halls to which the youth of the hills could descend for recreation. But when winter shut down on Starkfield and the village lay under a sheet of snow perpetually renewed from the pale skies, I began to see what life there-or rather its negation-must have been in Ethan Frome’s young manhood”(2). Starkfield is a small quiet village

Of late, however, since he had reasons for observing her more closely, her silence had begun to trouble him”(26). The point of view relates to the telling of the story because it gives the reader an outside perspective of the events that are taking place. The narrator’s perspective is third person point of view. Since the narrator’s perspective is third person omniscient, it allows you to understand how each of the characters are feeling. For example, the narrator shows how the feelings between Ethan and Mattie develop over

When Ethan and Mattie decide to be together they realize they can’t really escaped the lives they have now so they decide to die together. They decided to sled down a hill and “as they flew toward the tree Mattie pressed her arms tighter, and her blood seemed to be in his veins. Once or twice the sled swerved a little under them. He slanted his body to keep it headed for the elm, repeating to himself again and again; ‘I know we can fetch it’; and little phrases she had spoken ran through his head and danced before him on the air”(66). This conflict is significant because at this point in the story Ethan and Mattie decided to kill themselves. The story in entirety had been leading up to this conflict which is external. This helped move the story forward because it had finally answered what the “smash up” really was. It explained why Ethan is the way that he is to the reader. This complicated the plot because Zeena, who once was too sick to care for herself, ended up having to care for both her husband and