Ethan Frome Key Passage Analysis Essay

Edith Wharton instead designedly brings together human emotion and the milieu in her novella Ethan Frome. The characters be circumscribed by the environment in which they exist and the impossibility of outpouring from the environmental forces of nature, heredity and place shape the characters of the text. A scrap of accept arises as Mattie and Ethan walk home together from the dance and a to a greater extent romantic sense of possibility emerges.The reviewer is drawn to the love of Ethan and Mattie quite subtly it grows almost organically from innocent moments shared and this is perhaps why the reader does not see their affair as adulterous. We share the forecast that glimmers in the bleak cold that is Starkfield and its characters. Ethans sensitivity reflects an important formulation of his character that is interpretn to us in this section. His intelligence and the study in Worcester has exacerbated his closing off at heart the Starkfield community.Harmon Gows ironic ob servation that most of the smart unrivaleds got a government agency heightens the readers perception that Ethan is trapped. The appeal of inseparable beauty suggests a connection with the landscape that is romantic in its conception. Ethan communes with the environment and is able to see beyond the harshness in a way that the frame narrator cannot. The situation that he feels this appreciation of beauty as a silent and solitary emotion typifies the lack of communication indoors his world. Similarly, the night walks of Mattie and Ethan become moments of communion.Whartons choice of diction suggests that their alliance is more than a response to the physical harshness of the environment or repressed emotions the sweetness of this communion implies a genuine meeting of souls and minds that transcends the physical. The fact that Matties spirit trembled with the same touch of wonder is inspiring for Ethan and the reader is encouraged to view the affinity as one of purity and whit e earlier than adulterous. Wharton uses the environment as the meeting point for the lovers wonder looking for for up to the stars (an image often synonymous with dreams and hope) or across the fields.It is interest to note the descriptive language Wharton uses to describe Ethans vision when he is with Mattie. The sunset is red with cloud flocks over slopes of golden stubble with industrial-strength blue hemlocks the intensity of the colours reflect the intensity of his emotions and contrast with the blank, consummate(a) whiteness that has characterised descriptions of Starkfield up to this point. It is as if Mattie, whose surname sparkles with colour, transforms the landscape and Ethan sees the world anew when he is with her.His masculine ego is hinted at by Wharton in the perceptiveness Mattie displays for his knowledge of the environment. We have been encouraged to view him as the powerless and thinned husband, browbeaten by a shrewish wife. Mattie inspires a sense of ma nhood within him. This is interestingly displayed at the moment of crisis when the pickle dish is shattered as Ethan takes control and feels the thrilling sense of mastery as he reassembles the dish. The symbolic nature of the dish representing the marriage of Ethan to Zeena is shattered and Ethan is liberated by the moment however fleetingly.Wharton suggests that Mattie and Ethan are closely (and perhaps idealistically) suited to each some other she describes their walks as a communion. Matties description of the landscape looking as it had been painted strikes a deep chord within Ethan and he feels that Mattie is able to articulate his secret soul. The closeness and intensity of their relationship is perhaps understated depicted in the language of the environment rather than through eloquent dialogue. Wharton often plays upon Ethans lack of eloquence to show the difficulty he has in expressing his emotions.