Ethan Frome Essay
"Most of the smart ones get away." But if that were the case, how could any combination of obstacles have hindered the flight of a man like Ethan Frome?” Ethan Frome is an award winning novel written by Edith Wharton a renowned aristocratic American novelist that lived from January 24, 1862, to August 11, 1937. The differences and similarities between her and the work that she has produced are astonishing, especially when it comes to the life of Ethan From. For this double comparison and reflection we the viewers will need to look at about the character Ethan Frome and Edith Wharton’s, childhoods, love lives, and married lives.
The first aspect to which I wish to raise focus on is about how Edith Wharton was raised. She was…show more content… Edith Wharton was at one time very young fair lady that was engaged to another man prior to her families arranged marriage. From what I’ve come to understand this relationship came to an end in a very similar. However; most of her relationships and love interest end, the same way as Ethan Former’s first true love Mattie did, “Wharton's relationship with each of the three most important men in her life--her closest friend, Henry James; her lover, Morton Fullerton; and her husband, Teddy Wharton--was thrown into chaos.” Edith Wharton fell in and out of love with those that she could not have due to her family’s standings in the community, however; she like Ethan will always remember her first love no matter what may come after. It is apparent to anyone that reads up on Edith that she is reflecting most of the feelings that she has had the main character, Ethan Frome. This is evident being the Edith described his marriage to Zeena and Zeena herself as being a “listless creature who had lived at his side in a state of sullen self-absorption, but a mysterious alien presence, an evil energy secreted from the long years of silent brooding...All the long misery of his baffled past,”. This is very reflected how Edith Wharton is said to have felt towards her husband. Both Ethan Frome and Edith Wharton could never marry, be with, or have truly been happy due to their…show more content… An amazing, talented, and outstanding write will always put some part of themselves or all of themselves into their work it may be their dreams, ambitions, and emotional quarrels or perhaps even their past. This idea-ology is noted by Wolff, “similarities are Ethan Frome is in no way a direct translation of Wharton's situation into fictional form; nonetheless, it bears unmistakable resemblances. Nothing could be more true of the fictional character, Ethan Frome” Edith was trapped in her childhood, love life, and married life due to her social class just like Ethan Frome was entrapped after the sled accident with
