Suicide In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Suicide is a growing issue in the United States and around the world. Utah has the fouth highest suicide rate in the United States with 21 suicides per 1,000. The novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton outlines the steps taken by Ethan and Mattie that lead to their attempted suicide: First, there was the influence from the people in Ethan’s life and how they can invoke misery, second a sense of hopelessness and how it is displayed through nature, and third the decision to utimately end their lives after recognizing their unique (or so it seems) unhappiness. These steps successfully mimick those faced by real world people who stuggle with depression thoughts of suicide.

The influence Zeena has over Ethan is one of the major driving forces of the

Zeena makes Ethan miserable with her ‘sickness.’ She infers that her sickness will soon cause her death meaning that Mattie would have to go to make way for a proper maid. After seeing the distress it causes Ethan, she says “I feel a mite better now…I ought to eat all I can to keep my strength up.” The reader catches on that when Ethan is happy, Zeena suddenly becomes sicker and visa versa. When people, especially teenagers, feel insecure about themselves or have troubles of their own, they find ways to pull others down to their level. Bullies strike with emotional and/or physical pain to mask

He makes a plan to run away with Mattie to the West and begin a new life. He meets a friends in town who tells Ethan, “You’ve had an awful mean time, Ethan Frome.” Before this moment, Ethan had seen his discontented way of life, but assumed it not an original case faced by only him. After these good natured words, Ethans sees his state for how awful it truly is. He sees that his plan to leave to the West is wholly unrealistic leaving stuck to remain is his miserable state until the end of his days. He and Mattie ultimately make the decision for suicide because they sense there is no other way out of their situation without being wretchedly unhappy. The two lovers do not look for the help from anyone else beside themselves. When real victims of suicide battle their way through depression they are more often then not all by themselves. Suicide is the final and easy answer for in which they see themselves being most contented – to simply stop exsisting. Mattie and Ethan do end up together for the rest of their lives in an awful and unforseen circumstance. The suicide was utimatley unsuccessful. Likewise, the death of loved one has terrible and predictable results on the family which leaves the suicide an overall