The novel Ethan Frome is a story filled with detail. It takes setting in Starkfield and is about Ethan Frome who happens to be a farmer. Ethan made some not so wise decisions because he was trapped living with 2 women; his wife, Zeena, and his wife’s cousin, Mattie. Ethan fell in love with Mattie. When Ethan and Mattie fell in love, they had made a horrible choice making this novel a tragedy. A tragedy in literature is when a character or hero suffers a downfall because of a character flaw, error in judgement, or forces beyond human control. The short novel, Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, is a tragedy because of Ethan Frome’s character flaws, flaws in judgement and the forces beyond his control.
Frome’s pain was brought about by forces out of his control. Included in these forces are the weather and time of year, leaving for college and having to come back, and falling in love. The cold weather influnces Ethan to marry Zeena. Due to the seasonal weather, Ethan makes a not so wise choice in marrying Zeena. “After the funeral, when he saw her [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter” (44). This quote substantiates Ethan’s regret in marrying Zeena. He believes he wouldn’t have made that same decision had it been spring time. Another force beyond Ethan’s control or will is seen in the intro, it is about Ethan being forced against his will to come home on page 5 ““Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warn’t ever anybody but Ethan. Fust his father – then his mother.””(25). This quote is relatable to when Ethan was forced from college and back to the…show more content…
After the smash-up, Ethan is still quite a good looking man but his state of mind has changed. Ethan has become consumed with guilt from the smash-up so much so that he has become “bleak” and “so stiffened and grizzled that I took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was not more than fifty-two” (page 3). This conveys that Ethan has become bitter and cold.
In summary, the novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, can be delegated a tragedy. A man named Ethan Frome endures numerous destructions and inadequacies due to blunders in judgment and character blemishes. Ethan couldn't kill himself and his true love without messing it up. On account of these endured misfortunes, Ethan turns into an alternate man, deadened and genuinely racked with blame and guilt.
