Ethan Frome and “Fatal Coasting Accident” Comparison Ethan Frome is a classic novel, written in 1911 by author Edith Wharton. She based the accident that occurred in her novel on the historical “Fatal Coasting Accident.” In Ethan Frome, the simplicity of the accident is similar to that of the “Fatal Coasting Accident”, but the details overall are very different. Edith knew one of the victims personally, which made her change some aspects out of respect, but she also changed them to make the story her own.
4. The theme of the story basically means… love is hard. It’s hard to love yourself and your family members if you don’t strive for greatness and positivity, look at Ethan, he has barely had a one to one conversation with his father without having it interrupted by his father’s work (“I couldn’t remember a single meal with my father that hadn’t been interrupted by something to do with business” 189; 6-8). Ethan also hasn’t gained respect, nor has exceeded expectations (“He (Ethan’s father) couldn’t stop talking about you (Ethan), he held you in his arms the whole flight. He just went on and on about the hopes and dreams he had for you” 38; 13-18).
Ethan Frome, who has to face multiple conflicts throughout the book with his nonstop dream to be an engineer which is crushed due to the illness of, Zeena, his cousin, but who also happens to be his wife. Also a love begins to grow mid way through the book between a girl named Mattie and Ethan, even though he is still married to Zeena which ultimately leads to the distance between their love. In the book Ethan Frome, the feeling of isolation in Ethan and Zeena becomes more prominent, while anger grows between Ethan and Mattie from having denying their love, which contributes to the many mistakes and downfalls Ethan has to face throughout the book.
In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton the narrator tells the readers how he met the main character,Frome, in Massachusetts. Edith Wharton takes the reader twenty-four years into the past and there we see that Frome is a young man,who chased after an education in science, but when his father dies he is forced to return back to the farm. After that his mother becomes ill and his cousin Zeena comes to take care of her,but when his mother dies, Frome marries Zeena out of loneliness. As time passes by Zeena becomes more sick, due to this their marriage is without love and Frome feels very lonely and has no one to talk to. Then Mattie silver,Zeena’s cousin,comes to take care of her,and Frome falls in love with her and can not imagine life without
Ethan Frome takes place in Starkfield, Massachusetts, in the late 1890s to the early 1900s. One of the three main characters Zenobia, better known as Zeena, is Ethan Frome’s wife. Zeena and Ethan came to be a couple when Ethan’s mother became sick and Zenobia came to assist her. After Ethan’s mother passed, Ethan felt lonely and did not want Zeena to leave. Ethan fell in love with Zeena and later married her, although she was seven years older than him.
Mattie, Zeena and Ethan were all responsible for their own actions which resulted in them getting what they deserved. Ethan Frome was a young, 28 year old man, who lived in Starkfield, Massachusetts and was married to Zenobia Frome. Zeena helped care for Ethan’s mother when she was dying, which is how they got to know each other. After the death of his mother, Ethan began
One major change from Glaspell’s play was when Mrs. Hale opened the pretty box. In the play by Susan Glaspell, Mrs. Hale was looking for some pair of scissors and when she opened the box she said, “ There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk” (1206). In the video, Mrs. Hale says, “What a pretty box. She had this long time going she’s a girl” (0:20:03-0:20:24). After she opened it, she closed it right away because she didn’t want Mrs. Peters to see what was inside.
My Struggle, Your Struggle, Our Struggle “Ethan felt suddenly weak and powerless. Ethan looked at her with loathing. She was no longer the listless creature who had lived at his side in a state of sullen self-absorption, but a mysterious alien presence, an evil energy. She had taken everything else from him; and now she meant to take the one thing that made up for all the others''(Wharton ch. 7). Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton lives as a staple work from the Realism time period.
In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton depicts Ethan as a tragic hero who gets downtrodden by his circumstances and mainly, his personality. He has the tragic flaw of not being willing to put anyone in pain even if he benefits from it. Through this, he gets blocked from pursuing an education when he must care for his ill parents. Consequently, he also doesn’t get to socialize with other people of his age, making him feel awfully lonely. To further his tragic predicament, he marries Zeena, his cousin who arrives to take care of his mother and unfortunately, she prevents him from pursuing his love for nature and engineering by wanting to stay in Starkfield forever for her own ego.
A marriage without love and a life with misery. Spring or winter, it would’ve all been the same. In addition to Ethan’s conflicts with Zeena, he now had more weight over his shoulders with Mattie. Leaving with Mattie gave a horrible twist to his story.
The Fulfilment of Desire In the novella, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the theme of desire is the most prominent throughout the book. The book focuses on the love and desire that Ethan Frome has for his wife’s relative, Mattie Silver. The fulfilment of desire plays not only a key role in Ethan Frome but also in society. In society, we often desire people or things that we can not obtain.
This common struggle is portrayed particularly in Ethan Fromes desire to leave his miserable marriage to Zeena in order to run away with his passionate affair with Mattie. Zeena recognizes Ethan's interest in Mattie, ordering that Mattie leave immediately, this causes Ethan to consider running off. While writing a letter to Zeena of his departure, he quickly realize that "[hes] been in a dream, and this is the only evening that [he and Mattie] will ever have together"(56) ultimately because running away would be a hopeless endeavor. Although, Ethan is unhappy, noticeable by his silence that "does not reflect emptiness, but, instead, mirrors veery present but muted morals"(Wendt 158), he chooses that his moral obligation to Zeena is more important. Yet "the facts of poverty and his marital obligation act like prison guards"(Carrol) causing eternal imprisonement in the soul of Ethan.
In Edith Wharton's famous book Ethan Frome, main character, Ethan Frome’s story is a personal tragedy. His own decisions he makes are his own fault. But what is his tragedy? Well, to a certain understanding, his tragedy is that in the present day, he is always dreary and not as happy as he could have turned out; in other words, one could say that his tragedy is that he is unsuccessful in happiness. Although one may argue that the tragedy wasn’t all Ethans fault, and that the weather of new england caused it, that certainly isn’t true.
The nature of the Frome’s marriage was made transparent when Ethan fell in love with another woman. When the novel begins, Frome demonstrates his cowardice when confesses that he
Readers may not always be aware of the careful consideration involved in the narrative aspect of literature, but its significance should not be overlooked, for narration can play an enormous role in the development and reception of a novel. First, second, or third person. Limited or omniscient. Objective or subjective. All are components of that which constitutes a narrator, and all have the ability to dramatically alter the manner in which a story is relayed to the audience.
