Human Weakness Ethan Frome -- An Analaysis

*This is the essay I prepared for my American Novel class. Quotes are permissible as long as you make citation.*

By Sheriff, NMHU.

We live in a web of pains and pleasures. The actions we perform, whether they be mental or practical, are based on an endless pursuit of happiness and an avoidance of sorrow. Human life is the final meeting point of the thesis and the antithesis in the universe. This world of duality is the foundation for the most fundamental realities that we put on the list of the willed and the unwilled. Existence is an actualization and it includes an endless number of choices to follow. By existing, we accept the possibilities that sometimes may not be in our favor. That is why none of us is able to name it a good or a bad world. It’s the world of possibilities and these are shaped by numerous external factors. From the remotest agent, which would be the very condition of the universe of which we are a part, to the nearest, which would be the nucleus of the cell that composes our DNA, all these externalities act like the forces of nature do: Part of which is constructive, which helps us maintain our wholeness, and part of which is destructive, which works to decompose our corporeal being. Human existence is possible with the existence of those clashing forces where chaos finally leads into order. The lack of chaos or an overexposure to it disturbs the wholeness in man, pulling it down into a disorder. In Ethan Frome, we see how the lives of the three people are misshaped by decomposing external factors with which they had hardly anything to do. And the reason for this was the acute singularity present in their lives that left little room for them to move.

From the beginning to the end, Ethan, Zeena and Mattie were under the pressure of the forces they couldn’t harness. The nature kept them detached. If it hadn’t been the snow, the outside life would have come to them even if they would be unwilling to approach it. Ethan’s poorness kept him from realizing many of his earlier dreams, the last of them being his intention of running away with Mattie to a more promising place. Her social status hindered Mattie and didn’t allow her to go out into the real world and try her luck there. Maybe the bond tying her to Ethan was her crippled standing on the social ladder. Zeena was afraid of tumbling into a disaster if she ever lost Ethan, although her rigidness dated back well before Mattie’s entering into their lives. Nonetheless, Zeena, too, had fears she couldn’t cope with. Somehow fate had tied three of them to one another. In the presence of the destiny they were merely victims and had little to do but complain and make life unbearable for each other. Ethan expresses the general helplessness of the three when he stands by the family graveyard, looking at the headstone which bore his name: “Then with a sudden dart of irony, he wondered if, when their turn came, the same epitaph would be written over him and Zeena.” (33)

This helplessness in the face of externalities sometimes gives way to dramatic incidents such as the one when Ethan comes home from work with the anticipation of Zeena’s still not returning from his trip to Bettsbridge. “The barn was empty when the horses turned into it…” (44) Think of Ethan’s great joy when he presumes that Zeena isn’t home yet. But there are externalities they will never overcome; the very externalities that bind their fate and make them slaves in the vastness of the world. ‘“See here, Matt, I’ve got some stuff to mend the dish with…’ he cried. Oh, Ethan – Zeena’s come,’ she said in a whisper. They stood and stared at each other, pale as culprits.” (44) Desperately, Ethan tries to cling to reasoning, saying, “But the sorrel’s not in the barn!” (44) Their despair showed against the forces outside them is striking. Actually, the whole novel is but a dramatization of its characters’ smallness in the face of ruthless externalities. What answers could they come up with if things beyond their reach prove to be so adamant? Wharton wants us to see things in their naked reality. Here’s the stage: Man vs. his destiny. Humanity vs. God. Are we simple toys in the hands of God? As if, in her story, Wharton says, ‘Yes, we are. We’re helpless creatures squeezed between our desires and God’s will. And it is always fate that becomes triumphant.’ Ethan, too, knows this very well and his madness falls eventually, “and he saw his life as it was… He turned and walked slowly back to the farm.” (61) Why these three people were not able to come to term with their destiny? Because they were living under the pressure of singularities.

Life is composed of dualities. Good and bad, ugly and beautiful, high and low, hot and cold; all are the faces of the unique reality called existence. Nature itself, as well as the human life, rests upon its own peculiar dualities. In Ethan Frome, nature still keeps its normalcy. This manifests itself in the first pages of the book and lasts till the end. Looking at the fields, the narrator can’t help thinking that, “During the early part of my stay I had been struck by the contrast between the vitality of the climate and the darkness of the community.” (3) It has always been man spoiling the harmony immanent in the nature. In Ethan Frome we can feel the existence of nature still resisting against the corrosive forces of man: “It [nature’s variability] seemed to produce no change except that of retarding still more sluggish pulse of Starkfield.” (3) Nature’s helplessness in the face of human apathy is clear here. The state of anomaly present in each household in Starkfield somehow becomes alien to the constructive impacts of nature.

Without human intervention nature is poised to collapse into itself as it is also, just like mankind, created to be shaped by certain externalities. This lack of human interest and affection turns fertile lands into barren fields or savage forests. Not to be reduced into their lowest state of being, these two active forces in the world need to touch and feel one another. Only in this way can they keep or regain their integrity. Throughout the novel, the broken connection between man and nature is made clear. When Ethan fails to look after the fields he owns, the nature transforms into a hostile place for him. The narrator emphasizes this disinterestedness, “…the image it [Ethan’s house] presents of a life linked with soil, and enclosing in itself the chief sources of warmth and nourishment…” (4) And nature takes its revenge by “the thickening darkness… descending on us layer by layer.” (9)

Life is the culmination of our yearnings for unity. But the path to unity has to pass through numerous externalities and dualities. Man is made of thought, of will and of love: He can think truth or error, he can will good or evil, he can love beauty or ugliness. The synthesis is possible only when the singularity is reached through multitude. The Real is achieved through multiplicity as the signs of It is discernible in the things more than one. To light the fire of our desires, we need not only a can of kerosene but a box of matches as well. What put a damper on the lives of Ethan, Zeena and Mattie was their failure to grasp life in its multitude. Each lived such singular lives that they could not find the answers to their sorrow, unable to see the brightest light signaling their salvation. When Zeena wept over her broken pickle dish, she scolded Mattie in a most unusual way: “…I tried to keep my things where you couldn’t get at ‘em – and now you took from me the one I cared for most of all.” (54) She was sincere when she showed sign of emotion upon finding out what really happened to her pickle dish and this was the only time she became sensitive for something broken. Her nature looked for multiplicity while she denied it everything but a one-dimensional life. Like the nature around them and the businesses they are doing, their lives were on the brink of collapsing inside for long.

This state of being devoid of multitude is demonstrated more starkly when Ethan finally concludes that “There was no way out – none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of life was to be extinguished.” (57) Life, lived in such a linear manner, could hardly bring about any feasible answer to the problems faced along the way. No wonder that Ethan was unable to detect the faintest light over the horizon of his future. The helplessness of Ethan in the face of Zeena’s rigidness deteriorates further when the unipolarity of society leaves hardly any space for them to move and Ethan Frome cannot think of a solution whereby he could “renew his appeal [borrowing money from Mr. Hale] without too much loss of pride…” (59) This rigidness is tangible in the lives of these three people, Mattie having the least of it in her personality. However, in the end of the story, she also yields to the pressure of this singularity and cries in despair: “Ethan, where’ll I go if I leave you? I don’t know how to get along alone…” (71)

These examples taken from the hearts of the main characters in the novel, lead to the conclusion that certain externalities have a profound impact on our lives. We’re bound by what we call the manifestation of fate and its imposition on us. But, if it’s faith and the will of God leading us into a certain point, there should have been no evil discoverable; but there’s evil in the lives of Ethan, Zeena and Mattie. As an answer to this claim, it could be said that God being the highest good, he would not allow evil to exist in His works, unless His might and goodness were to bring good even out of evil. It is part of the infinite goodness of the Absolute that He allows evil to happen and then makes good come out of it. This argument places all the responsibility on the shoulders of these three people, not that of fate. They were responsible for their salvation but they became unsuccessful in the actualization of that potentiality. They end up real losers. In Mrs. Hale’s words, “It is bad enough to see the two women sitting there – but his face, when he looks around that bare place, just kills me…” (75) What kills her is the face of a deep sorrow. If the mere apparition of it is so strong, how could they were able to endure it for such a long time?

Yet, Wharton goes one step further from this point and demonstrates that even if we submit to the externalities imposed by fate, it’s often not enough. These external forces not only impede our progress on the road, but also drag us backwards and we find ourselves deprived of even a spoonful of happiness and satisfaction in life. This very quality of the externalities, against his and Mattie’s will, has built a monument of tragedy out of Ethan’s already ruined life. In the last second of their prospective salvation, “suddenly his wife’s face, with twisted monstrous lineaments, thrust itself between him and his goal, and he made and instinctive movement to brush it aside…” (72) There’s no further point from this indescribable human condition. It’s hell in the world; judgment before the Judgment Day. It’s the point where the novel gives its subtlest yet the most striking message: Man is but a speck in the face of the storm of the forces that made him what he is, placed him where he is and gave him what he has.

Work Cited:
Wharton, Edith, Ethan Frome, New York, Dover Publications, 1991