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Ethan From. Ethan Frome Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome inspires many different
thoughts on the way a person from a rural background lives. ...
Ethan From. ... In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton the winters of Starkfield
represent failure, death or physical pain and isolation. ...
Ethan From. PURPOSE: To examine the character of Zenobia Pierce in the novel “Ethan
From” by Edith Wharton. ... She is a great relief to Ethan during this time. ...
ethan from. ... Ethan is married to Zeena, a nagging hypochondriac, and Mattie, a girl
of relation to Zeena who does some housework and is very beautiful. ...
Ethan From. Ethan From’s Selflessness and Affects of his Responsibilities By Neil
Mehta Ethan From is the main character of Edith Wharton’s tragic novel. ...
Submitted by cgallen on July 11, 2005
Category: English
Words: 662 | Pages: 3
Views: 173
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Effects of the Environment
In Ethan Frome, a novel about the classic struggle between pure passion and conforming to social norms, there is one prevailing theme that cannot be ignored. That theme is the tremendous effect that the environmental conditions of Starkfield, Massachusetts have on the inhabitants. From the very beginning of the book, when the narrator is learning about Ethan from Harmon Gow, he says, “But one phrase stuck in my memory and served as the nucleus about which I grouped my subsequent inferences: ‘Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters.’” (p. 7), referring to what Harmon had mentioned about the mysterious man. This description portrays the environment of Starkfield as almost an oppressive power that has control over the people who live there, including Ethan. Or perhaps it is especially Ethan who is affected by this domineering climate because Wharton says, “He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty” (p. 29). This statement is referring in particular to the natural beauty of Mattie Silver, but it can also be taken to mean that he is sensitive to the natural beauty (or lack thereof) of the landscape. Ethan’s sensitivity to this allows the grim and overpowering nature of Starkfield to basically steer the direction of his life. It seems as if Ethan’s entire life consists of nothing but the dreary, such as the farm and Starkfield, or the unobtainable, such as his “studies” (that he was forced to give up on) and Mattie Silver who was also unreachable for him. No matter how Ethan tries to escape the dreadful place, something acts as a force to bring him back to it.
Another observation that can be made about the depiction of the environment is that the description of Ethan’s farm is expectedly even more depressing than the general landscape of Starkfield. Wharton at one point even chooses to relate the depleted condition of the farm to the...
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