Edith Newbold Jones-Wharton, author of Ethan Frome, was born into a wealthy New York family. She grew up in the world of high society, but her true interests were not in wealth, but rather the beauty of language. She consistently read and wrote numerous pieces from a young age. She later ended up marrying Teddy Wharton, a mentally challenged man. Ethan Frome, spurs from her own personal experiences with her husband. The alluring benefactor of Ethan Frome is that not only does Wharton express her meaning through text, but overall structure of the story. Her unique structure supplemented in enhancing the message and feelings invoked while reading. The potentness of Edith Wharton’s structure of Ethan Frome consists of interchanging point of views, setting,and flashback, rather than chronological order; Wharton establishes suspense as well as curiosity within the reader.
Ethan Frome begins with first person. An unnamed individual, later disclosed as being an engineering is investigating around Starkfield. For some unknown reason, he is asking around about Ethan Frome and his accident. This adds a
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Just by the name, one can deduce how destitute and solitary the place is. Consistently throughout the text, the weather and geography is constantly mentioned. Wharton used, “geography to perfectly mimic the interior and psychological landscape of the characters” (Shreeve vi). Ethan is described to be a “ruin of a man” and “griddled” (Wharton 4). Just like the draft and solitary weather of Starkfield, Ethan was described to be lonely and empty of emotion. This continuously adds to the suspense of what had happened to Ethan. Also, comparatively during the flashback, Ethan compares Mattie to nature frequently. He compares her to, “a wheat-field under a summer breeze” (Wharton 79). This epitomizes that to Ethan, Mattie was change, she was a breath of fresh air in an isolated harsh area. She was the sunlight in the