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Ethan Frome
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A General Review of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome is a novel where the very limits of humanity is forced, tested and tresspassed on. What we witness in that book is a human tragedy, not a sacrifice. In fact, sometimes, it is hard to call it even a tragedy as we don’t see purification through pain in the story. A tragedy aims at reaching a state of purification and exaltation through sacrifice. There is no sacrifice in this story. There’s not death and martyrdom, as well. And we cannot see any moral lesson to be derived in the end. The lack of moralization, martyrdom and sacrifice leave us awestruck in the face of stark cruelty and inhumaneness. This novel is the story of a struggle between opposing wills. Not only the clash of wills of Ethan and Zeena: the wills of the whole village also participate in the struggle, making the situation more and more untangible for the Fromes. In this struggle, do we realize that even failure has a spiritual value? I looked for a sign of spiritual greatness in Ethan and Zeena, but couldn’t see any. This must mainly because of the fact that such a prolonged and hopeless defeat as Ethan Frome’s has hardly anything to bring out but isolation and a twisted body. In this atmosphere, I can’t help loathing the notion that suffering and defeat have an innate value. What is sadder and more pitiful for Ethan is his lack of hope of any kind. Under the pressure of his ill fate, he is no longer able to extend the limits of his future beyond the family graveyard at the age of 28. The most striking line in the whole novel, the line that, to me, summarizes the story, is when Ethan confesses that “..it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter…" (p. 29) Zenobia and Ethan, despite they are young, seem old and already wretched emotionally. Was that natural and conventional for those times -- to feel like old at such an aerly age -- or was that the result of their incompatibility and lovelessness? If the answer is the second option, then we would easily put the whole blame on Zeena. Personally, I hate those kind of women who pretend to be weak, helpless and lopsidedly vulnerable -- Women who seem to be always on the verge of a psychological and physcial collapse. Zeena is a successful valetudinarian. And I ask myself, are women weaker than men? The answer to this would reveal if Zeena was really sincere or was just pretending. Actually, Zeena was a hypochondric well before she began nursing Mrs. Frome. At some point, it is said in the novel that, “..her skill as a nurse had been acquired by the absorbed observation of her own symptoms.” Indeed, that’s why she so successfully was able to take care of Mrs. Frome without any single complaint. And again, after the smash-up, she quite happily turns back to her former ‘occupation’ of nursing ‘the sick,’ this time two person on the list, one crippled, the other bedridden, forgetting all about her hypochondric sickliness. Zenobia had never been a sincere person. She was a schizophrenic that needed professional help, which was a luxury at that time. The worst part of her truthfully sick personality is her disinclination to consent to any change, even the slightest, in her physcial environment. This bad character of her forces Ethan to give up his hope of selling the farm and trying his luck in a city. This gleam of hope, however, is cruelly blown out when Zeena shows a blatant doggedness against such an idea. Zeena’s sneaky characteristics is once again made clear in her arrangement for Mattie to take the job of an unpaid servant, whom she could abuse without any fear of social denunciation. Until she discovers the blooming love between her and Ethan, she is perfectly consent with her. Because, to her, Mattie is more than a servant, but a modern-era, so to speak, slave without shackles. It is when the rapport between Mattie and Ethan developes into something which is close to love that Zeena rushes forward, through a despicable plan carried out masterfully, to find out a ‘real’ servant, but not a slave, whom they have to pay. And think about the lashless lids… “Two small tears… on her lashless eyelids.” This is a very strong depiction of a brutal personality. A physcial symbol of a merciless psychology, like that of Genghis Khan who were born with a blood clot in his palm, that wants neither a lover, nor a husband, nor a sensitive, compliant servant, but slaves that she could abuse and make fun of. In the face of this brutality, the first and the last revolt of Ethan against Zeena happens when he angrily declares to drive Mattie to the railroad station although Zeena has arranged for the handyman to do the job. And this revolt emerges at the wrong moment and is carried out very badly. The two lovers’ overt and exeggerated sentimentality brings about the very dawn of their fate, which is to be shaped at the hands of Zeena herself from then on. Such an execessive, childish sentimentality, given her age, is expected from Mattie; however, I would like to see Ethan to be more articulate, mature and reasonable. But in the end, I still have enough symphaty for Ethan, having seen that, after years of misery and ill-fate, he remains, still, capable of reacting in a friendly way toward the narrator and showing a deep interest in modern knowledge. It is strange to see that, despite all her cruelty and inhumaneness, Zeena does not break the moral codes in the society. No one blames her for anything. Ethan and Mattie go against some basic traditional values. However, Zeena never displays a sign of humaneness except when she has wept over the pickle dish, a wedding gift, which she has never used. Zeena’s humaneness somehow manages to go as far as shedding few tears over a pickle dish – a pitiful distance, indeed, to go while she at the same time keeps up making a ruin out of the flowering love of Ethan and Mattie. How was Ethan’s mental state during his short happy life with Mattie? Was he really happy? Or did he keep suffering – suffering from a love that has hardly been fulfilled and from lovelessness? And why did Zeena’s apparition stand between him and the elm tree at the last moment? The moment that could have been their salvation? And who suffered most? I guess that’s one of the questions we need to ask. In this respect all my symphaty goes to Mattie, as she had nothing to do with Ethan’s or Zeena’s particular situations. She was not part of their lives and destinies until just one year ago. She did not deserve to be kept in a dark, cold kitchen for 20+ years as a bedridden young girl under the care of the one who were the very reason for her calamity. This is not a simple tragedy; this is mere cruelty. This level of realism leaves me in a state of shock and I come to the realisation that Wharton never wanted to give us a moral lesson. She simply wanted us to get awestruck.
Posted By beroq at Mon 22 Jun 2009, 12:19 PM in Ethan Frome || 0 Replies
introduction??
I was wondering if it is vital for me to read the introduction, because my teacher had only assigned for us to read the entire book, he did not specify if reading the intro would be needed. I'd like to skip reading the introduction if it isn't completely necessary.
Posted By mstiffers at Mon 16 Feb 2009, 11:27 PM in Ethan Frome || 0 Replies
Engineer Ethan Alternate Form?
I noticed that Ethan also wanted to become an engineer before his father got sick... Could the engineer represent a free form of Ethan not tied to the farm and the saw mill?
Posted By V5AceJazzFreak at Mon 5 Jan 2009, 2:55 PM in Ethan Frome || 2 Replies
symbolism
I love the symbols that represent death, light and communication (or lack thereof). From the ride back to the farm all the way to the smash-up, symbols of these three things are present. Cool. (no pun intended)
Posted By topteacher at Fri 12 Dec 2008, 8:56 AM in Ethan Frome || 1 Reply
Ethan Frome's Tone and Theme,etc...?
I have a paper to do, and one requirement is to identify the tone and theme of this book... i really do not understand how to get tone and theme? Also, i need to see diction if possible...if some one could help me, i'd really appreciate it. thanks =]
Posted By chileanbob at Thu 23 Nov 2006, 11:24 PM in Ethan Frome || 3 Replies
Help Please
I need some type of help with this damn book cause i have a project that I have to do and I dnt know how in the world I am going to answer these questions.....PLEASE HELP ME PEOPLE.
Posted By crazylover at Fri 29 Jul 2005, 12:14 AM in Ethan Frome || 2 Replies
No Subject
Having read Ethan Frome in class, and having gone through a very strange test, and a futile discussion that followed, I still have some questions in mind.
1) Did anyone get the idea that Ethan Frome wanted to teach college before his father's illness? I thought he wanted to be an engineer...that was our dispute over the True or False question "Ethan planned to be a college teacher after he graduated." or something along that line.
2) Does anyone think that Ethan is the antagonist as well as the protagonist? I thought that Zeena was the protagonist. Yes, Ethan hindered himself. But doesn't almost every protagonist in the history of literature?
3) About symbols...did the spruce symbolize anything? Is there an argument that they didn't? And as for the sawmill, is it possible that it was a symbol?
4) If someone asks you "True or False, Ruth Varnum continued to visit Ethan and Mattie Silver regularly and often after the accident", would you think that they're asking you about right after the accident or the time lapse between the accident and the time when the narrator tells the story?
Posted By Monseigneur at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Ethan Frome || 1 Reply
Ethan Frome, duh.
Reading this in my junior year, between The Great Gatsby (terrific) and Into The Dust (horrible), it was fairly disappointing. The Romeo and Juliet-esque love theme made me want to vomit-yet more people that are simply stupid and have horrible things happen to them (ei, driving into the tree). The story went far too slow, what there was of it. And Edith Wharton obviously knew nothing of the simple life in wintry little Massachussetts. While coasting (sledding, in Americanese) and going to church dances seem fairly boring and trivial to most, these activities meant something to the people who live such lives. Ethan was a bad character to begin with, but in my opinion, he would never had tried to kill himself.
Yes, Wharton obviously knows her literary devices and themes (some of the more metaphorical thoughts are borderline masterful), but those themselves don't make a decent novel.
Fairly boring, and a waste of time, unless you enjoy those Shakeaspeareian(sp?) tragedies.
Posted By Rob Hnatko at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Ethan Frome || 0 Replies
Paper
I'm writing a theme on this book and how authors use tragic love to add realism. I loved this book, how it was so optimistic- and yet it ended with my own feelings, that love isn't necessarily attainable...or it doesn't exist...or it doesn't always work out. Whatever. But I did adore the writing style and the general plot, the end just made me rip it in half. Literally.
Posted By Higurashi Kagome at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Ethan Frome || 0 Replies
What's the point?
So, there's this guy Ethan Frome and he has a terrible life with miserable circumstances. He falls in love with Mattie Silver; however, he's already married to Zeena, the evil witch, unfortunately. Poor Man. And then Mattie and Ethan try to commit suicide but fail. Woe is Ethan. I feel bad for the man, but what's the point of the book? I don't think it enhanced my life in any way. The only thing it did make me happy about was that I'm not Ethan Frome.
Posted By Karen at Tue 24 May 2005, 6:07 PM in Ethan Frome || 0 Replies