Title:_Ethan Frome___________

Author:__Edith Wharton__________

Date of Publication:__1911_________

Genre: __Novel___________________

Biographical information about the author:

Edith Wharton was born Edith Jones into an upper-class New York City family in 1862. As was typical for members of her class at that time, Edith had a distant relationship with her parents. She received a marriage proposal at a young age, but the wedding was ultimately thwarted by her prospective in-laws' perception of the well-established Jones family's unsurpassed snobbery. In 1885, at the age of twenty-three, Edith married Edward Wharton, an older man whom the Jones family found to be of suitably lofty social rank. At an early stage the marriage turned somewhat sour, but Wharton remained with her husband for well over twenty years. She finally divorced him in 1913, although she never renounced his family name.

Characteristics of the genre:

A fictitious prose narrative of considerable length and complexity, portraying characters and usually presenting a sequential organization of action and scenes

Plot summary:

Ethan Frome is described as “the most striking figure in Starkfield” (Wharton 3); “he was but the ruin of a man,” (3) with a “careless powerful look…in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain” (3). Frome's wife is the “sickly, cantankerous” (3) Zeena. He is her sole caregiver until her young and beautiful cousin, Mattie Silver, arrives to help with housekeeping. Ethan is taken in by Mattie’s youthful beauty and good humor, but his interest in Mattie does not go unnoticed by Zeena. In fact, when she realizes Ethan and Mattie’s mutual attraction, she plans to hire someone less attractive and to have Mattie sent away.

The comfort Ethan seeks in Mattie's company is threatened when Zeena says that she will replace Mattie with a hired housemaid. During the time between this announcement and Mattie's leaving, Ethan considers leaving his wife numerous times to elope with Mattie, but every time he lacks the confidence to rebel against the morals of his being and community.

On the day of Mattie's departure, emotion overcomes Ethan, and he tells Mattie that he wants to live with her forever. They decide to take a final sled ride down together into a bulky tree, so it will kill them instantly, rather than live the rest of their lives separated. Ethan, desperate to escape his loveless marriage and meaningless life, complies. The accident, however, fails to kill them because Ethan "sees" Zeena out of guilt and tries to turn away from her, but paralyzes Mattie permanently and leaves Ethan barely able to walk.

After the story is told, the narrator is shown inside Ethan's home, where he finds two old women, one of whom complains in a whiny voice of the coldness. The whining woman turns out to be Mattie, and the other woman is a healthier Zeena who now looks after Ethan and Mattie much as they once looked after her.

Describe the author’s style:

-Point of View told by Narrator

-Imagery and Details

-Foreshadowing

An example that demonstrates the style:

-The introduction and conclusion is told by the narrator but there is no reference to the narrator between the introduction and the conclusion.

-The author frequently created imagery using detail to describe the winter and how it affects the residents of Starkfield

-Ethan and Mattie foreshadow their smash-up when they early talk about the dangers of sledding by the great elm

Quote

"Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters."

"It's bad enough to see the two women sitting there - but his face, when he looks around that bare place, just kills me."

"It was a miracle, considering how sick she was - but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her."

Significance

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