Symbolism In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

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Edith Wharton is an American author of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In her novella Ethan Frome, Wharton uses symbolism as a way to develop a theme for the story. The story Ethan Frome takes its setting in a small New England community in which there is little to no acceptance with sinful deeds. Throughout the story there are many symbolic objects. The L shaped barn, the cat, the red pickle dish, and the great elm tree all have symbolic meanings. Wharton uses all these objects to develop the theme of failure to the story. However, the pickle dish was the most important symbolic object. The pickle dish represents the Frome’s matrimony. The dish was a wedding gift and Zeena’s most prized possession. Just like the stored