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Symbolism In Wharton's Ethan Frome

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Edith Wharton is an American author of the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. In her novella Ethan Frome, Wharton uses symbolism to develop the theme of her story. Ethan Frome takes place in Starkfield, Massachusetts in which there's little tolerance towards sinful deeds. Around the Frome house many objects take a symbolic meaning to the importance of the story. Therefore Wharton uses much symbolism and imagery in the story to explain to the readers what is going on emotionally inside the characters and what is going to happen.
The cat, the L shaped barn, the red pickle dish, and the elm tree all have an important symbolic meaning to the story. Wharton uses all these objects as a way of creating and developing the theme of failure in this story. One major, but not the most important symbol used in this novel is the Fromes family cat. The cat is used symbolically throughout the book. It represents the presence of Zeena and the force that becomes between Mattie and Ethan. Once the cat breaks the jar the whole story than changes due to …show more content…

It was a dish hardly used, that was only brought down in the spring time for cleaning. The dish was a wedding gift, which has significant meaning in the story. The fact that it was red and that it was a pickle dish adds to the sexual meaning that it possess as a symbolic object. The red pickle dish shows Mattie as an intruder who would reintroduce sexuality into Ethan's life. The color of the dish is a representation of Mattie and meaning of red in the story. Her red scarf, lips, and ribbon all connected her to the symbolic object, the pickle dish. The pickle dish is first showed as Zeena's and Ethan's physical meaning of their marriage. Once Mattie comes into Ethan's sight of love, her presence destroys it. The way it happens in the story is that as Ethan and Mattie prepare for dinner the cat jumps onto the table and breaks the red pickle

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In the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Wharton was able to paint a picture of the situation using motif such as the red pickle dish. This dish was a gift given to Ethan and Zeena on their wedding day by a relative of Zeena, therefor the pickle dish symbolized the marriage. The pickle dish is was described as red which is a color only associated with Mattie so the pickle dish also symbolized Mattie. The fact the object was a pickle dish tied the object with Ethan because he was the only main character that has a “pickle”. It is very obvious that the pickle dish means a lot to all three characters by how they react when it breaks.

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In the book Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton multiple objects are used to represent big moments in the book and is heavily used. There are many objects that clearly relate to people and relationships between people. The first emblem that represents love between Mattie and Ethan is Mattie's red scarf and ribbon in her hair. The first symbol is the pickle dish representing Ethans and Zeena’s relationship. The final commodity is the cat which represents Zeena.

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Mattie is panicked and worried when the pickle dish is knocked over and destroyed by the cat, and 3. Ethan is trying to figure a way out to repair or get a new pickle dish. Each of these represent different parts of Ethan and Zeena’s marriage and the relationship between the three characters. In Ethan Frome, the pickle dish is kept up high on the shelf so that nobody can get to it.

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Seen most prominently in Ethan and Mattie’s dinner scene, the cat often seems to make attempts at breaking up the two lovers. The animal makes pointed efforts to keep Ethan and Mattie from developing anything more than a friendship, and acts like a nagging wife keeping her husband from getting to know any other women too well, as would be Zeena’s role if she were home at the time. Ethan and Mattie’s neglect towards the cat’s preventative actions causes the feline to smash the red glass pickle dish symbolic of Ethan and Zeena's love and marriage.

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Ironically the exact opposite of Zeena, Ethan starts to fall for her and even starts to stand up to Zeena when Maddie comes along. Ethan cannot hold back and controls his feelings towards Mattie and

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The black cat seems to me to symbolize many different things. I feel that the everytime she sees that cat it’s a warning that something bad is soon to happen. I feel that the black cat also represents reincarnation and when Sophia is not there as a ghost or in spirit she is secretly a lonely, dark cat that tries to scare everyone around her. Another piece of symbolism that I noticed while reading the book is Sophia's doll and dress. When Florence where’s the dress and carries the doll around her room she seems to symbolize Sophia when she was alive.

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Wharton uses a lot of symbolism in the story “Ethan Frome”. Such as the red ribbon and red scarf. The color red represents vitality, good health, and ruddiness, all of which Mattie has a great quantity of. Zeena, on the other hand, lacks all of these qualities, considering her “condition”. This makes Mattie very attractive to Ethan, like a breath of fresh air, like a new beginning.

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John Fernandez Survey American Lit. 3/15/23 The Fates of the main characters in the story Ethan Frome are not deserved but happen because of the choices they make. Ethan Frome and his Lover Mattie silver find themselves in a failed suicide pact and end up having to be taken care of by Ethan's wife Zeena for the rest of their lives. Zeena Fate in the story is she has to take care of Ethan and Mattie after their failed suicide. Zeena doesn’t deserve but caused her fate was she didn’t know that Ethan and Mattie were trying to kill themselves because it would have been better than living apart from each other.

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The image is mesmerizing: The small, sleepy town of Starkfield, shrouded in a blanket of gently falling snow, is lit up by the rosy reds and the bright yellows of the morning sun. The snow glows and sparkles in the light as the sun rises higher and higher in the sky. However, the protagonist, Ethan Frome, often doesn't recognize the beautiful scenery and instead, sees the dreariness of the town, mirroring his equally bleak life with his wife, Zeena. As Ethan falls in love with Mattie, his house maid, he becomes more aware of the radiant world around him. In Ethan Frome, author Edith Wharton often uses colors to depict Mattie's growing influence on Ethan.

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Byatt does an excellent job of bringing the reader to a closer perspective and making the story feel alive and real. “The Thing” is most likely the biggest use of symbolism throughout this story. This creature, or “thing” that these girls believed they had seen, left possibly one of the biggest impacts on their life, leaving behind an unsettling amount of trauma. “The Thing” as described in the story, was blind, miserable and seemed to be in pain. It’s smell radiating off of it smelt of blocked drains, maggoty things, and rotten eggs.

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Symbolism is a standout amongst the most vital scholarly terms utilized frequently by numerous authors to pass on their focal thought. As indicated by the Longman Contemporary Dictionary, Symbolism can be characterized as a gadget that brings out more than an exacting importance from a man, question, picture or word. Symbolism plays a big factor in this story. The significance of Mrs. Moore trip with the kids to FAO Schwartz is caught in Bambara's utilization of Symbolism. The youngsters took a gander at various elite toys outside the store.

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Imagery and Symbolism Edith Wharton creates the novel with a high percentage of imagery and symbolism in one. Some ways she combines both imagery and symbolism together is by a flower. Wharton states, “He had never seen any as sun-golden before, and his first impulse was to send them to May instead of the lilies. But they did not look like her - there was something too rich, too strong, in their fiery beauty”(Wharton).

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Symbolism can use an object (like a tree of birds), or art, (like Melinda’s art project or Mr. Freeman's canvas) to represent an abstract idea. Laurie Halse Anderson uses symbolism to hint at a certain mood or emotion, rather than just blatantly saying it. So, the use of symbolism is important because it helps create meaning and emotion in a story. Symbolism makes a book fun to read, the symbolism produces a thought provoking work of art and it, (like in this book), adds meaning to seemingly unrelated objects and elicits emotions in the

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The cat… tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so backed into the pickle-dish, which fell to the floor with a crash” (Wharton, chap 4). When Mattie moves in and her relationship with Ethan grows, she begins to break Zeena and Ethan’s marriage. Mattie moving in could be represented by the cat getting on the table. When the cat knocks over the dish, it breaks. This symbolizes that when Mattie got too close, Ethan’s marriage broke apart.

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Ethan’s initial response is to attempt to simply piece back the pickle dish with glue. The use of glue or “the easy route” to fix the broken pickle dish so Zeena won’t discover the accident, symbolizes Ethan’s thought process to try repairing their loveless relationship. Furthermore, Ethan is afraid to even tell Zeena that the dish has broken which shows the lack of communication and understanding in their relationship. Zeena’s response is much more dramatic, by intensely accusing Mattie of not only breaking her most prized possession, but also threatening her husband and their marriage. Zeena’s anger and resentment over the broken pickle dish actually illustrates her sorrow over her broken and unfulfilling marriage.

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