The Motif Of Death In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Once he was introduced to Mattie, he was happier. It was almost like he got a sense of adrenaline from the situation. Ethan just made everthing worse. Zeena came back from her trip basically planning to get rid of Mattie. Ethan and Mattie didn’t realize that. But seeming that “Nobody can tell with Zeena” (Wharton 82) makes it excusable. Zeena soon found the broken pickle dish and she was heated. “You wanted to make the supper-table pretty. . . and you waited till my back was turned. . .” (Wharton 111). Ethan tried his best to argue against Zeena but it didn’t work. Because of Ethan, Mattie was being sent away. Ethan couldn’t fight against Zeena and he knew that if he left Zeena, he would have to deal with a quicker downfall of himself. “...he was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman” (Wharton 142). That’s all Ethan was because he chose to marry Zeena. He got himself stuck in a permanent situation. Instead of moving, he agreed to take Mattie but on the way they decided to symbolize their love for each other. They atteempted suicide together but this did not work. Ethan and Mattie ended up together. But, they ended up with Zeena taking care of them. Mrs. Hale describes it as being “. . . pretty bad, seeing all three of them there together” Wharton 154). Ethan’s actions caused him to live the rest of his life dreadfully when he might as well have been

Zeena is Ethan’s cousin who originally came to nurse his sick mother. Ultimately, the two get married after his mother’s death, and Zeena blames her questionable illness on Ethan’s mother, claiming “For I’d `a` been ashamed to tell [Dr. Buck] that you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother!” (97). While Ethan is evidently unhappy in his marriage and has been hurt by Zeena, this does not excuse the rest of his behavior. He is unfaithful to his wife, not only with her family and caregiver, but with a young and naive girl whom he takes advantage

Ethan Frome was highly motivated by Mattie Silver. He dreamed of being with her and not with his wife Zeena. His motivation reflected his behavior towards his family and friends and most of all Mattie. Each time he looked at her, he felt that they were meant to be together forever. He even thought about running away with her to the west and starting over again. His marriage to Zeena was a forced marriage because of her services given to Ethan's mother when she was sick and dying.  Frome could not hold back his emotions for Mattie Silver and each chance he had, he expressed them to her. Although he felt guilty about lying to Zeena just to be with Mattie, he could not help his actions he was so in love.

In Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, one major critical theory revolves around the psychological criticism. The novel revolves around this critical theory because Wharton wanted the reader to observe how the setting becomes dependent on the emotional state of the character and vice versa. Throughout the novel, Wharton makes changes to the environment to represent Ethan’s fondness for certain characters. On the contrary, Wharton displays how the setting directly influences Ethan’s mental state. As the reader perceives this influence that each character has on Ethan Frome, they can develop an understanding of the relationships established in the novel. This critical theory will be expressed throughout the literary analysis paper, specifically in the Novel Summary section and Literary Criticism sections. The following text will analyze the drastic changes in the environment and compare it to Ethan’s mental state.

In order to escape Zeena so that “[they’d] never have to leave each other” Mattie and Ethan decide to commit a double suicide by crashing into a large elm tree (143). However, instead of dying on impact, both survive—Frome, “stiffened and grizzled” (4) like “an old man” and Mattie, paralyzed from her neck down. Ironically, they achieve their goal. With Mattie bed-bound for the rest of her life and Frome too poor to move away, they have to spend the remainder of their lives together. Even more ironic is how Mattie becomes Zeena after the “smash-up,” when that was who they trying to escape (4). Bed-bound, she spends her days “[complaining] in a high thin voice,” her withered body reduced to “hollow[ed]...temples,” “shriveled [face]” and a “shapeless” form (151). Moreover, while in the past “[Zeena couldn’t even care for herself” and prevented her husband’s happiness, now that that “she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her” and effectively sustained Ethan’s personal hell

Ethan feels the responsibility and judgment that he will be faced with if he leaves his wife Zeena to be with younger Mattie, as his heart desires too, leaving him stuck in his marriage. Mattie faces the standards set upon her as a former city turned poor farm girl, but is unable to perfectly complete them. She had the talents expected of her as a city girl, but they are turned impractical and unuseful when she goes to help the Fromes. She has no skill in the housework expected out of her, which makes Zeena fire her and force Mattie to go to the city. Mattie sees the future so awful and she so unprepared and inept (as she was never made to take care of herself) that she sees death better than uncertainty. Zeena knows all the right things to do in the eyes of society and knows all the expectations, yet still does not do her life perfectly in the eyes of society and social norms. All are left with unhappy and quite awful lives, due to them attempting to follow what is expected of them by society. Maybe if they did not try and follow the rules that would be better off for it. The tragedies of the characters lives in Ethan Frome all mainly contribute to the theme that society’s rule and expectations lead not to happiness, but instead do not let individuals go after personal

Wharton uses the family graveyard to convey the theme of death in the Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome. Zeena, a ghostly character, causes Ethan to be metaphorically dead in life by restraining him from happiness in life. Although she is physically a weak and sickly character, Zeena has an extreme amount of power over Ethan that makes it possible for her to take his joy. She is always cranky, and she displays her anger in an unsettling passive aggressive manner. The fact that Zeena never changes throughout the story furthers the theme of death and the symbolism of the graveyard because she acts as though she is dead.

When Mattie showed up in the story, Ethan started to change. He was no longer depressed and sad. Then when he found out that Mattie was Zeena’s cousin and will be staying at their house, of course, he was very much happy considering that he would no longer be lonely. His life started to be open towards her. Some things of Mattie that makes Ethan lighten up are her scarf and her actual last name, Silver. Her red scarf is what brings more of a color to Ethan’s life rather than being a dull color. Mattie’s last name, Silver, also gives light to Ethan. Even though silver can been as a grayish color it actually brings out brightness for him. When Ethan meets Mattie for the very first time, “He would have liked to stand there with her all night in the blackness (Wharton 19).” Another things that shows us light, is Mattie’s presence in the house. “It was warm and bright in the kitchen. The sun slanted through the south window on the girl's moving figure, on the cat dozing in a chair, and on the geraniums brought in from the door-way, where Ethan had planted them in the summer to "make a garden" for Mattie (Wharton 28).” Mattie’s presence makes Ethan warmer inside which makes him happy. With her in the house, Ethan is never depressed and lonely. Now he has someone to hang out with that he feels comfortable to be around

To begin, Ethan’s unhappy marriage with Zeena is the starting point from which all of his decisions are made. The marriage itself happened under almost false pretenses when Zeena came to help care for his sick mother. After being in such an oppressive, silent environment for so long, “Zeena’s volubility was music in his ears,” and her capable, competent attitude “restored his shaken balance and magnified his sense of what he owed her” (26). This initial exposure to Zeena led Ethan to a kind of bedazzlement, so when he saw her ready to leave after his mother’s funeral, “he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm” and asked her to stay

Ethan for a long time attempted to stay with his morals and tried to stay with his wife. Ethan finally breaks, and is unable to keep his morals straight, and he faces another decision when Mattie is forced to leave. This devastating event causes Ethan to change along with his morals. For the first time he stands up to his wife, and he even thinks of running away. He is faced with the dilemma of leaving his ailing wife and run away with Mattie, or stay with his wife and watch Mattie leave.

“Zeena, apparently accepting this as final, lay watching him in silence while he pulled his suspenders over his shoulders and jerked his arms into his coat; but as he went toward the door she said, suddenly and incisively: “I guess you’re always late, now you shave every morning.” (Wharton Chapter 1) Ethan starting to shave everyday makes me think that he is trying to improve his appearance. He is trying to look young. He is trying to gain Mattie’s attention. His need to feel like he is important and loveable is coming before his responsibility towards Zeena.

She blamed her being ill on Ethan’s mother, as she took care of her while she was sick, but his mother eventually died, and she stayed to marry Ethan. They made plans to sell the their farm, so Ethan could finally have his dream and he could leave Starksfield, but his dream was killed when Zeena became ill and they had to stay, “"We never got away – how should you?" seemed to be written on every headstone…” (Wharton,

In the bitter town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, a traveler finds himself in a snowstorm and has to take shelter in the house of Ethan Frome, a old man with a bad leg. Many years prior, Ethan worked as a millworker. He later married Zenobia Frome who fell ill soon after. Zenobia’s young cousin, Mattie Silver, goes to the house to assist her. Ethan finds himself infatuated with Mattie and can’t bare the thought of living with his dull wife in that bitter town. Ethan dreamt of running away with young and beautiful Mattie. Did he stay to tend to his wife, or was he smart and got out of town?

Ethan suffers from many things in his life, his marriage, his amount of money, and to be general, his way of life. The things that affect him the most are the decisions that he makes for himself, for he won't know the consequences. Now Ethan is a victim of his own personal choices and temperament. Whether they be the choices he makes, that go against Zeena. Another being that he’s happier with Maddie than with his current wife. And Lastly, if he chooses to run away with his true love or stay in misery.

After Ethan and Jayce graduated, they decided to save money and share an apartment together. They had been best-friends since middle school and now they had gotten their first job. They both decided to sleep, then wake up at 10:45 p.m. and get ready for their first night on the job. As they arrived at Cool Croc's Pizzeria , they both thought it would be a piece of cake, so they didn't experience the normal first day jitters. The place was so big that they had to work in separate rooms. Ethan