Introduction
One
of Edith Wharton’s greatest works is Ethan Frome. It is written in great
simplicity and has long been considered as a powerful tragic novel. It is
sharply etched portrait of the simple inhabitants of a nineteenth-century New
England village. Unlike Wharton’s other novels like, Age of Innocence and The
House of Mirth, Ethan Frome is very short, and the plot is uncomplicated. But
despite of its size, Ethan Frome holds a firm place as one of American
literature's great tragic love stories. Through Ethan, the protagonist of the
story, the hopes, failings and torments that characterize Wharton’s greatest
characters and fiction powerfully expressed (Nevius, 1953).
Moreover, the events in the novel is reflected to a certain part of Wharton’s
life – her marriage to Teddy Wharton. In Zeena Frome’s sickness and Ethan’s
hopeless sense of entrapment, there is somehow an observation of fictional
expression of the emotional and physical breakdown of Teddy Wharton and Edith
Wharton’s fear that she would never escape her suffocating marriage (Lewis, 1975). Thus, the novel is truly of tragedy –
a touch of fiction and fact.
Many themes can be
extracted from this novel, Ethan Frome. Frustration, illness and disability are
some of those themes that are veiled in the story but the theme of love stands
out for it is the cause of the conflicts and other elements in the story. It is
the reason why Ethan Frome’s fate is generically down, sad and
frustration-filled and remains stagnant.
Body
Lack of love can twist and warp a man
almost beyond recognition; this is so for Ethan Frome. From Ethan’s younger
years in the farm until adult, there were no innovations in his life. His life
from his younger years was full of sacrifice. Ethan has tried to escape this
kind of life; he wanted to be an engineer and took a course in technology; he
even went to Florida once; but this entire means failed because of his parents’
illness. It caused him to return and take care of the farm, here started his
loss of potential. He was out of love and lonely. Then he married Zeena for the
only reason that he is lonely but his decision is wrong because at the later part
Zeena becomes the hindrance to his happiness. He is incapable of action because
of his moral sense of duty to others. What results is a hopeless sense of entrapment (Salmi, 1991). Typically, it is not difficult to
despise Zeena Frome and view her as a character that represents all that
destroys Ethan and also Mattie: petty narrow-mindedness, a spiteful, vindictive
nature; sickly repression (Rahi, 1983).
Ethan is out of love again and Zeena adds to the misery he feels. Though Zeena
is not a bragging wife, her coldness and irrevocable attitudes persuade Ethan
to fall for Mattie, Zeena’s cousin.
Mattie Silver as one of the most
extreme examples of a character type present throughout much of Wharton’s
fiction: the female intruder. The female intruder in Wharton’s novels is
usually braver, more vital woman, who enters the world to which she ultimately
does not belong (Worsheven, 1982).
Mattie enters the lives of Ethan and Zeena and eventually, Ethan falls in love
with Mattie due to her vibrant attitude and emotions. This scenario leads to
the betrayal of Ethan from Zeena and this also gives a chance for Ethan to have
the life he desires. Love between Mattie and Ethan did not prosper and at the
same time Ethan failed again to escape his fate. Because of the love they feel
for each other they decided to die than to live without the other one. In the
end, the suicide failed. It seems that Ethan’s decisions are not allowed by his
fate. Hence, Mattie and Ethan were both crippled. Mattie was being taken care
of Zeena. Ethan, Mattie and Zeena all reside to the same house at Frome’s farm
– this is the emotionally powerful ending of the story. The love that was
needed by Ethan, in the story, has not been given to him until the end. The
readers did not recognize or expect Ethan could do such thing but because of
his love and desperation it was materialized.
Conclusion
Finally, Ethan Frome
demonstrated a love that conquers all but still fails. Due to the lack of love
that Ethan Frome felt from his youth to adulthood, the entire incident in the
story fall into an unfortunate ending. The love from his parents and wife is
absent in his life and at the end, Ethan will live in a house with the woman he
hates and the woman he had a chance to have a happy life. The theme of love has
a big part in this novel. Lack of love can twist and warp a man beyond
recognition. In the story, the readers did not expect that Ethan will be really
miserable at the end. Thus, man cannot foretell and foresee what other man can
do because of love. Life is complete when there is someone who loves you
dearly.
Works Cited
Lewis, R. (1975). Edith Wharton: A Biography. New York: Harper and Row,
Publishers, Inc.
Nevius, B. (1953). Edith Wharton: A Study of Her Fiction. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: University of California Press.
Rahi, G. (1983). Edith Wharton: A Study of Her Ethos and Her Art.
Amritsar, India: Guru Nanak Dev University Press.
Salmi, A. (1991). Andromeda and Pegasus: Treatment of the Themes of
Entrapment and Escape in Edith Wharton's Novels. Helsinki, Finland: Suomalainen
Tiedeakatemia.
Wharton, Edith (2000).
Ethan Frome. USA: Signet Classic
Worsheven, C. (1982). The Female Intruder in the Novels of Edith Wharton.
Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses.
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