The Essay 'The Old Stone House' By Edmund Wilson

I chose the essay “The Old Stone House” written by Edmund Wilson where I will define the word “thwarted” . In the essay Edmund Wilson inherited the family home, now an old moldy home that is basically abandoned .He says that the home has become like a dream to him . He says that as he walks through the rooms he has a sense of “uneasiness, complacency, and depression” (22).Although it held his most treasured memories as a child . In which he writes an essay describing The Old Stone House . As I read and looked into the word my understanding of the word had little to no change .

In the beginning of the essay the word thwarted was used to describe his feelings. In the essay Wilson states , “I look out through the dirt yellowed double pane and remember how once, as a child, I had felt thwarted till I had gotten the windows up so that there should be nothing between me and the widening pastures, the boulders, the black and white catde, the rivers stony and thin, the lone elms like feather dusters the high air which sharpens all outlines, makes all colors so breathtakingly vivid, in the clear light of late afternoon” (118). To me the word thwarted meant he felt trapped because he was using it to describe how he felt as a child . He also says that until he was able to put up the window that there was nothing between him meaning that there was some sort of obstacle preventing him to do something or go somewhere.

The word “thwarted” comes from the Middle English theatre, from the adjective thwart ‘perverse, obstinate, adverse (Dictionary.com, 2017). According to Dictionary.com “thwarted” is defined as “prevent someone from accomplishing something.” Basically “thwarted” means to oppose or hinder someone from going through with a plan or goal