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Essays on Ethan Frome

Writing an essay on Ethan Frome is important because it allows students to delve into the complex themes and characters of Edith Wharton's novel. By analyzing the tragic love triangle between Ethan, his wife Zeena, and his love interest Mattie, students can explore concepts of morality, duty, and the consequences of repressed emotions.

When writing an essay on Ethan Frome, it is important to thoroughly analyze the motivations and actions of the characters. Consider how their backgrounds and circumstances influence their decisions, and how these decisions drive the plot of the novel. Additionally, it is crucial to examine the setting of the story and its impact on the characters' lives.

Furthermore, it is essential to support your arguments with evidence from the text. This can include direct quotes, character actions, and specific scenes that illustrate the points you are making. By providing textual evidence, you can strengthen your analysis and demonstrate a deep understanding of the novel.

In addition, it is important to consider the broader implications of the novel. How does Ethan Frome reflect the societal norms and expectations of the time period in which it is set? What universal themes does the novel explore that are relevant to contemporary society?

When writing about Ethan Frome, it is also important to engage with existing critical interpretations of the novel. Consider how other scholars and critics have analyzed the text, and how their perspectives align or differ from your own. This can help to enrich your own analysis and provide a broader context for your arguments.

In conclusion, writing an essay on Ethan Frome is important because it allows students to explore the rich themes and characters of the novel. By thoroughly analyzing the text, providing evidence to support your arguments, and engaging with critical interpretations, you can develop a comprehensive and insightful analysis of this classic work of literature.

What Makes a Good Ethan Frome Essay Topics

When it comes to choosing a topic for an Ethan Frome essay, there are a few key factors to consider. First, it's important to choose a topic that is interesting and engaging. This will not only make the writing process more enjoyable, but it will also capture the reader's attention. Additionally, it's important to choose a topic that allows for in-depth analysis and critical thinking. This will ensure that the essay is well-researched and thought-provoking. Finally, consider choosing a topic that allows for a unique perspective or interpretation of the text. This will help the essay stand out and make a lasting impression on the reader.

To brainstorm and choose an Ethan Frome essay topic, start by considering the themes and motifs present in the novel. Think about the characters, relationships, and setting, and how they contribute to the overall meaning of the story. Consider what aspects of the novel you find most compelling and what questions or ideas you would like to explore further. From there, research different Essay Topics and consider how they align with your interests and the requirements of the assignment. Finally, choose a topic that you feel passionate about and confident in your ability to write about.

Best Ethan Frome Essay Topics

• The role of the landscape in shaping the characters' lives
• The motif of isolation and its impact on the characters
• The significance of the name "Ethan Frome"
• The portrayal of gender roles and expectations
• The use of symbolism in the novel
• The theme of duty and sacrifice
• The impact of the setting on the characters' choices
• The role of the narrator in shaping the reader's interpretation
• The portrayal of love and desire in the novel
• The use of foreshadowing and its impact on the reader's experience
• The motif of silence and communication
• The theme of regret and missed opportunities
• The significance of the sled in the novel
• The portrayal of the town and its inhabitants
• The impact of the novel's structure on the reader's understanding
• The theme of fate and destiny
• The use of irony in the novel
• The role of memory and nostalgia in shaping the characters' lives
• The impact of the novel's ending on the reader's interpretation
• The portrayal of illness and disability in the novel

Ethan Frome Essay Topics Prompts

• Imagine you are a character in the novel. Write a letter to another character expressing your innermost thoughts and feelings.
• Rewrite a key scene from the novel from a different character's perspective.
• Create a modern-day adaptation of the novel, set in a different time period or location.
• Write a critical analysis of the novel's use of symbolism and its impact on the reader's interpretation.
• Imagine you are the author of the novel. Write a reflection on the themes and motifs present in the text and how they relate to your own life and experiences.

The Consequences of Choices in Ethan Frome

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The Concept of Human Suffering Depicted by Edith Wharton in Ethan Frome

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The Examples of Manipulative Behavior in Ethan Frome

Fate and determination in ethan frome, the understanding of innocence in ethan frome.

September 1911

Edith Wharton

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Ethan Frome

Edith wharton, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Ethan Frome: Introduction

Ethan frome: plot summary, ethan frome: detailed summary & analysis, ethan frome: themes, ethan frome: quotes, ethan frome: characters, ethan frome: symbols, ethan frome: literary devices, ethan frome: theme wheel, brief biography of edith wharton.

Historical Context of Ethan Frome

Other books related to ethan frome.

• Full Title: Ethan Frome
• When Written: 1910-11; French exercise begun in 1907
• Where Written: Rue de Varenne, Paris, France
• When Published: September 1911
• Literary Period: Edwardian Period
• Genre: Novel
• Setting: The fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts
• Climax: The sledding accident
• Antagonist: Zenobia (Zeena) Frome
• Point of View: First-person observer (frame story); third-person omniscient (main narrative)

Extra Credit for Ethan Frome

Views on Marriage: Wharton frequently wrote about unhappy marriages, and herself divorced a mentally-ill husband at a time when divorce was a hot topic (divorce figures doubled between 1880 and 1900, and doubled again by 1920, owing to new laws and changing social mores). Wharton was particularly critical of American marriages in which the husband looked down on the wife because she took no interest in his business affairs, and the wife retaliated by spending enormous amounts of money. Although Ethan Frome is sometimes seen as anomalous among Wharton's novels because it is not about upper-class New York society, it is typical in its concern with how traditional institutions and values perpetuate an imbalance of power between men and women that often destroys their relationships with one another.

Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and the History of Literary Scholarship

• First Online: 14 May 2021

Cite this chapter

• Karen Weingarten 3  

Part of the book series: American Literature Readings in the 21st Century ((ALTC))

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This chapter provides resources for teaching Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome in a course on literary methodologies. The course project introduced demystifies for students the work of literary critics by indicating that literary criticism has a history and a changing practice. The primary goal is to teach students what makes a good question when they are beginning their research. The assignment also aims to show students how “good questions” have changed over time. Ethan Frome is the focus of the project because the historical scholarship on this novella reflects changing trends in literary criticism. The assignment asks students to consider to what extent readings of the novel have changed (and stayed the same) from new critical to new historicist, to feminist, and to critical race studies (to name a few examples). Ultimately, the project shows that Wharton’s success as a novelist indicates that she received attention from literary critics at a time when many other women writers were ignored. Thus, the project reveals that the richness and sometimes contradictory politics of her works position many of them, such as Ethan Frome , as excellent sources for tracing the development of literary criticism, and in turn, demonstrates that Wharton’s works have been interpreted differently through the years.

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Ammons, Elizabeth. 2008. “The Myth of Imperiled Whiteness and Ethan Frome .” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters 81 (1): 5–33.

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Bernard, Kenneth. 1961. “Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome. ” College English 23 (3): 178–84.

Farland, Maria Magdalena. 1996. “Ethan Frome and the ‘Springs’ of Masculinity.” MFS: Modern Fiction Studies 42 (4) (Winter): 707–29.

Geriguis, Lina. 2017. “‘Rich in Pathological Instances’: Disability in the Early Reception Theory of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome .” Edith Wharton Review 33 (1): 57–72.

Hayot, Eric. 2014. The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities . New York: Columbia University Press.

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Hemblen, Abigail Ann. 1965. “Edith Wharton in New England.” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters 38 (2): 239–44.

Morrison, Toni. 1992. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination . Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Murad, Orlene. 1983. “Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome.” Modern Language Studies 13 (3): 90–103.

Nevius, Blake. 1951. “‘Ethan Frome’ and the Theme of Edith Wharton’s Fiction.” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters 24 (2): 197–207.

Rose, Alan Henry. 1977. “‘Such Depths of Sad Initiation’: Edith Wharton and New England.” New England Quarterly: A Historical Review of New England Life and Letters 50 (3): 423–39.

Wharton, Edith. (1911) 2013. Ethan Frome. Edited by Carol Singley. Broadview Press.

Wolff, Cynthia Griffin. 1987. “Cold Ethan and ‘Hot Ethan’.” College Literature 14 (3): 230–45.

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Paper 1 Prompt

In a four-to-five-page paper, discuss how scholarship on Ethan Frome has changed in the last fifty years.

Try to be as specific as possible when considering what change you will trace in the scholarship. Ideally, you should focus on one or two elements that have changed and that can be traced easily in a short paper.

Note: Use Chicago or MLA style when quoting from the text. You can focus on any component of the assigned articles. Please make sure to have a thesis statement in the first paragraph that summarizes your argument about the change in scholarship. You do not have to do additional research for this essay.

Reading and Assignment Schedule (This material is excerpted from my syllabus.)

Unit 1: History of the Field/Posing Critical Questions

The first unit will focus on how the questions that shape scholarship in literary studies have changed through reading one short work in American literature and some of the criticism produced about it. We will read scholarship from journals and books that reflects changes in the discipline. At the end of this unit, students will submit a four-to-five-page paper that compares several critical articles to reflect on how scholarship on Ethan Frome has evolved.

Day 1. Read:

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and the following: Geriguis, Lina. “‘Rich in Pathological Instances’: Disability in the Early Reception Theory of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome ” Ammons, Elizabeth. “The Myth of Imperiled Whiteness and Ethan Frome ” Handout: prompt for paper 1

Day 2. Read:

Bernard, Kenneth. “Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome ” Contemporary Reviews and Commentaries (in the Broadview edition of Ethan Frome ) and skim the other appendices. Murad, Orlene. “Edith Wharton and Ethan Frome”

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Weingarten, K. (2021). Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome and the History of Literary Scholarship. In: Asya, F. (eds) Teaching Edith Wharton’s Major Novels and Short Fiction. American Literature Readings in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52742-6_13

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Ethan Frome’s Characteristics Essay

The narrator spends his winter in Starkfield, where he is attracted to Ethan Frome, a local resident. Initially, the narrator thinks that Ethan, whose face is disfigured and scarred from an accident he had suffered ten years earlier, is unapproachable and silent.

Subsequently, he gets curious about Ethan’s facial characteristics and his isolated existence that he decides to seek for clarification from the local residents. During his investigation, the narrator learns that Ethan is a decent and sensitive man who loves nature, but lacks the emotional stamina. The narrator further employs imagery and symbolism to bring out highly unmotivated and morally bankrupt characters.

One of the characters is Ethan, the narrator’s main character, who is compelled by poverty, marital duty, and conventional morality to remain unhappy in his entire life. His sorrow, however, results from his inability to act, and when he finally acts, he makes a decision that ruins him, his wife and his wife’s cousin.

Accordingly, Ethan is left unease and sleepless because he does not tell Mattie about his feelings for her on their way home from the village church. On this particular night, Ethan is on a mission to fetch Mattie Silver, his wife’s cousin. He then learns that at the basement of the church there is a dance.

Viewing through the window, Ethan gets attracted to a young girl whose scarf was cherry-colored. Ethan’s morality is put under test when he decides to hang back at the end of the dance to find out the identity of the young girl, who turns out to be Mattie. On their way home, Ethan has a chance of expressing his immoral intentions towards the young girl but he fails to do so.

On the contrary, he allows the presence of Mattie to raise more tension between them, which unfortunately ends when they arrive at home. Here, the narrator has made it apparent that Mattie is healthy and attractive unlike Zeena, Ethan’s shrewish and sickly wife. The dressing of Mattie symbolizes blood, which means she is lively and strong. However, Mattie is the kind of person Ethan is to be careful with. This is because blood also symbolizes evil. Nevertheless, Ethan spends a miserable and thoughtful night (Edith 37).

Furthermore, Ethan does not verbalize his passion for Mattie when they spend a night together. Factually, Ethan would have slept happily had he acted freely with Mattie. On this particular day, Zeena has decided to go to a distant journey in search for treatment. Fortunately, she promises not to come back as she would spend the night with her relatives.

This plan excites Ethan who assents to it immediately, with high expectations of spending a night alone with his desired woman. However, tension between the two lovers grows higher that Ethan fails to consummate his passion for Mattie. At this point, the narrator employs symbolism to reveal the difficulty involved when immorality is due.

On the other hand, the cat, which represents the presence of the official wife shatters Zeena’s marriage pickle dish. This signifies the collapsing relationship between Ethan and Zeena (Canby 34). Later that day before they retire to bed, Ethan gets closer to demonstrating his love, but again he fails to do so. By losing this special opportunity, Ethan’s misery is definitely on the rise. Perhaps, he hopes to extend his extramarital intentions soon enough before Zeena reports back. Like the previous day, Ethan spends another sad night.

Moreover, Ethan’s inactivity concerning the planned exit of Mattie leaves him hopeless. Torn between morality and social norms, Ethan keeps on postponing the revelation of his feelings to Mattie at the expense of his happiness. As the head of the family, Ethan has all the rights to make decisions. Unfortunately, his wife dominates over him that he has no say at all in regard to family matters. Besides, the narrator makes it clear that Ethan is not fully settled on whom to love.

This is seen when he runs into town to get some glue for fixing the smashed dish. Here, Ethan gambles between the pleasure presented by Mattie and the obstacles created by his wife. When Ethan returns that evening from town, he is deeply frustrated when he realizes that his wife is back. Additionally, the wife wants attention from him since her health is on the decline. Therefore, Mattie is to be replaced with a younger and more efficient girl.

This latest development angers Ethan very much but as usual, he decides to remain quiet and hurt. Instead of Ethan opening to Mattie about his feelings, he goes ahead to tell her how Zeena intends to replace her with another girl. This is definitely another area where he fails to act and finds himself unhappy, now that Zeena has become suspicious of his relationship with Mattie. Consequently, his docile nature coupled with the demands of Zeena leaves him hopeless (Canby 40).

Additionally, Ethan’s inability to act independently is seen when he is trying to finance his planned escape with Mattie. It is now evident that Ethan’s miserable life is contributed by his inability to make firm decisions. Moreover, poverty as an impediment to achieving personal satisfaction is clear as Ethan cannot escape with Mattie.

On the day of the escape, Ethan has a good plan of asking for an advance on a lumber load that he had delivered recently to Andrew Hale. However, he meets the wife of Hale who greatly praises the way he has taken care of Zeena. The sweet words make Ethan feel guilty of his plan that he returns home to his wife. Precisely, getting back home does not guarantee him any comfort as later he is seen escorting Mattie to the station. Ethan takes Mattie to the village hilltop to fulfill a promise they had once made of sledding together.

They do a successful run downhill for the first time that Mattie asks for a second run, which is intended to end at the elm tree. It is until now that Ethan acts and makes a decision that ruins his future life. Here, the narrator explores the external pressures that contribute to Ethan’s decisions, which frequently leaves him more desperate.

Eventually, Ethan acts by following the suicide pact suggested to him by Mattie. In the entire book, this is the only time that Ethan shows his desire to be happy through an active decision making process. Now, Mattie is seen as an impulsive and melodramatic adolescent who does not appreciate Ethan’s feelings for her.

She persuades Ethan to make a hasty decision that leaves him disfigured for the rest of his life. Besides, it handicaps Mattie and leaves Zeena helpless with her chronic ailment. Perhaps, this is the fate that Ethan and Mattie always wanted. Their desire to remain together forever has come true, though they can no longer enjoy the love they wished for. At the same time, Ethan, who did not intent to separate with Zeena, ends staying with her too under the same roof.

Zeena’s desire for dominance is achieved, however, with some repercussions as she must take care of the paralyzed Mattie. Had Ethan exercised his ability to act, and act appropriately, then he would not have brought his family this burden. Again, the narrator uses the outward signs to portray Ethan’s inner reality that he is in a state of decline and destitution (Dodson 22).

From the foregoing argument, it is noted that the conflict between morality and social convention is explored throughout the narrative. The narrator makes it apparent that Ethan is in love with Mattie, but fails to tell her so. Somehow, Ethan admits spending all the years in loneliness and solitude that he has become a reserved man. He goes ahead to confess that the tying relationship he has with Zeena has worsened his loneliness, and he would otherwise be better without her.

Therefore, his intentions to commit immorality with Mattie become clearer as the narrative progresses, but this action is against the social norms. Perhaps, this is why Ethan takes too long to act towards achieving his happiness. However, Ethan eventually decides to forever be with his only love, Mattie. Unfortunately, this decision leaves him crippled and Mattie invalid. Overall, Ethan, Mattie and Zeena achieve what they always wanted.

Works Cited

Canby, Vincent. “Liam Neeson in Lead of Wharton Classic.” The New York Times 8.2 (2007): 21-50. Print.

Dodson, Samuel F. “Frozen Hell: Edith Wharton’s Tragic Offering.” Edith Wharton Review 16.1 (1999): 20-31. Web.

Edith, Wharton. Fiction of Edith Wharton . New York: Charles Scribner, 1922. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2023, December 20). Ethan Frome's Characteristics. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethan-frome/

"Ethan Frome's Characteristics." IvyPanda , 20 Dec. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/ethan-frome/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Ethan Frome's Characteristics'. 20 December.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Ethan Frome's Characteristics." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethan-frome/.

1. IvyPanda . "Ethan Frome's Characteristics." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethan-frome/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Ethan Frome's Characteristics." December 20, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ethan-frome/.

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Personal or Social Tragedy? A Close Reading of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

Photograph of writer Edith Wharton, taken by E. F. Cooper, at Newport, Rhode Island. 

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"…after all, the tragedy unveiled to us is social rather than personal… 'Ethan Frome' is to me above all else a judgment on that system which fails to redeem such villages as Mrs. Wharton’s Starkfield." —Literary critic and author Edwin Bjorkman

Readers of Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome (1911) can hardly fail to be moved by the suffering of the title character. Ethan is, quite literally, a physical and emotional wreck. His misery captivates the narrator. Indeed, the whole body of the novel represents the narrator’s effort to reconstruct the tragic circumstances of Ethan’s life. Yet even as the story concludes, we are not quite sure what or who to blame for Ethan’s ruin. Was Ethan ruined by his personal problems (his loveless marriage) or by “the crushing, choking atmosphere” of his social environment? Had Ethan been able to express his love for Mattie, could he have lived happily in Starkfield?

This lesson will challenge students to weigh the textual evidence for and against the claim that Ethan’s woes lay in staying in Starkfield—and not in the details of his personal relationships. In the process, students will engage in a close reading of pre-selected passages from the novel, along with a few passages of their own choosing through at-home reading journals. These close reading exercises will culminate in an in-class debate and possibly the crafting of a short argumentative essay, in which students will have an opportunity to respond to Bjorkman’s thesis.

Guiding Questions

Is Ethan’s story a personal tragedy born of his indecision and personal failures, a social tragedy forecast by the oppressive New England setting, or both?

Learning Objectives

Situate Ethan Frome within the context of American regionalist literature.

Gather, annotate, and analyze key quotations from Ethan Frome.

Respond to contemporary reviews of Ethan Frome.

Use textual evidence to support their own claims about the plight of the novel’s protagonist.

Lesson Plan Details

Who is responsible for Ethan’s ruin and misery? Ethan himself? Zeena? Fate? Starkfield? What would it have taken for Ethan to be happy? Marrying Mattie? Having more money? More courage? Better luck? Leaving town? Ever since the book’s publication, these questions have been central to the critical reception of Ethan Frome . The critic Edwin Bjorkman, for example, offered the following comment in a 1913 essay:

"Glancing over the all too brief volume [Ethan Frome] in retrospect, I can find only one point where it suggests a certain degree of failure, of growth still unachieved…   "As I read the book now, I come away with an impression that, in the author’s mind at least, the one thing needed to change Ethan’s life from a hell to a heaven would have been the full and free expression of his love for Matt. "Romantic love, as idealized for us by our forefathers, has long ago gone into bankruptcy. Had Zeena died and Matt married Ethan—well, it is my private belief that inside of a few years life on that farm would have been practically what it was before Matt arrived, with Matt playing the part of a Zeena II—different, of course, and yet the same. For the life in our Starkfields is cursed or saved not by this or that single incident, not by the presence or absence of this or that individual, the curse lies in staying there, in breathing the crushing, choking atmosphere of Starkfieldian sterility."

Bjorkman points to a fundamental ambiguity in Wharton’s narrative—is the oppression of the environment such that opportunities for personal growth are choked out? Is this a problem for the society as a whole, or is it, instead, simply a problem for Ethan and his family?

Wharton conception of Ethan Frome was motivated, in part, by her response to a previous generation of (mostly female) “New England fiction” writers, who wrote with some affection about the small communities tucked away in the New England landscape. What follows are Wharton’s own comments on the New England fiction of the late nineteenth century, and its influence on the writing of Ethan Frome :

"I had known something of New England village life long before I made my home in the same county as my imaginary Starkfield; though, during the years spent there, certain of its aspects became much more familiar to me.   "Even before that final initiation, however, I had had an uneasy sense that New England of fiction bore little—except a vague botanical and dialectical—resemblance to the harsh and beautiful land as I had seen it. Even the abundant enumeration of sweet-fern, asters, and mountain-laurel, and the conscientious reproduction of the vernacular, left me with the feeling that the outcropping granite had in both cases been overlooked. I give the impression merely as a personal one; it accounts for 'Ethan Frome,' and may, to some readers, in a measure justify it." —From Wharton’s Introduction to Ethan Frome

"But the book to the making of which I brought the greatest joy and the fullest ease was 'Ethan Frome.' For years I had wanted to draw life as it really was in the derelict mountain villages of New England, a life even in my time, and a thousandfold more a generation earlier, utterly unlike that seen through the rose-coloured spectacles of my predecessors, Mary Wilkins and Sarah Orne Jewett. In those days the snowbound villages of Western Massachusetts were still grim places, morally and physically: insanity, incest and slow mental and moral starvation were hidden away behind the paintless wooden house-fronts of the long village street, or in the isolates farm-houses on the neighbouring hills…" —From Wharton’s 1934 autobiography, A Backward Glance

These comments, along with the Bjorkman passage cited above, are all reproduced in the Ethan Frome: Sources handout . You may want to print and distribute that handout before beginning the lesson in preparation for the activities below.

Note that the generation of New England fiction that motivated Wharton was a subset of the much broader “local color” or “regionalist” movement in American literature, which flourished during the decades following the Civil War. An overview of the local color movement (its defining characteristics, techniques, and authors) is available on Prof. Donna Campbell’s American Literature site. You may wish to copy and distribute this overview for use with Activity 1 below, or prepare to project it on a screen or otherwise share it with students.

Edith Wharton: A life in pictures and texts , via Internet Public Library, offers a biography of Wharton through pictures, and serves as a nice introduction to her life for students. The excellent exhibit, Edith Wharton’s World , at the EDSITEment-reviewed Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery website highlights Wharton’s associations with various great literary, cultural, and political figures of her era, including: William Dean Howells, Henry James, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Theodore Roosevelt. 

• Review the lesson plan and the websites used throughout. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing, including the “Close Reading” worksheet and the Ethan Frome: Sources handout .
• Students can access the primary source materials and some of the activity materials via the EDSITEment LaunchPad .
• An online text of Ethan Frome is available at Project Gutenberg .

Activity 1. Edith Wharton and (New England) Regional Literature

Begin by introducing the class to Edith Wharton’s life, using the resources discussed in the Background section above. Explain that Wharton follows a generation of mainly female authors who wrote about life in New England—authors who placed a heavy emphasis on the significance of the regional landscape, culture, mores, and dialect. Note that these authors belonged to a movement in nineteenth century American literature called “local color” or “regionalist” fiction.

Provide an overview of the local color movement, drawing from Prof. Donna Campbell’s American Literature site (see Background for more information, above). Review the list of “characteristics” and “techniques” associated with regional literature, and have students take note of the specifics for the following:

• Detailed description
• Frame story

As you go through this list, remind students that they will be keeping “reading journals” as they read Ethan Frome , and they should keep the above in mind as possible ways to respond to their reading selections (e.g., for one journal entry, students might focus on the narrator, or a specific theme, or the use of description in a chapter).

Note to students that Edith Wharton was in some ways critiquing some of the New England regionalist writers of the time. Read with the class Edith Wharton’s own comments on her New England regionalist predecessors, which can be found in the Ethan Frome: Sources PDF (a link is also available via the EDSITEment LaunchPad ). Notice that despite the apparent affinities between Wharton and her predecessors, Wharton’s own motivation lay largely in repudiating the idealized portrayals of New England life characteristic of the regionalist genre.

Take note of the two authors whom Wharton explicitly accuses of viewing New England through “rose-coloured spectacles”: Sarah Orne Jewett and Mary Wilkins (Freeman). If students in the class are familiar with the works of either Jewett or Freeman, ask them if Wharton’s complaint against Jewett and Freeman seems justified? Otherwise, encourage students to pay close attention to the qualities of regionalist literature as discussed above. Throughout their reading of Ethan Frome , they should keep in mind this question:

• Based on the criteria discussed in class, to what extent is Ethan Frome consistent with the typical regionalist novel? To what extent does it break from the regionalist mold?

This question is an excellent one to return to at the conclusion of the novel.

Activity 2. Introducing Ethan

Turn to the introductory chapter of Ethan Frome and, if time allows, read it aloud with students (alternatively, have them read it the night before). As the class completes the chapter, help them closely review the chapter with the following questions in mind, pointing to specific passages in order to discern answers. The point of this exercise is both to introduce the novel as well as to demonstrate close reading skills that students show employ as they read the novel and consider ideas in their reading journals.

Review “who” is telling the story and how the narrator is getting his information. Ask students to describe the characters they are introduced to in the opening “frame” of the narrative. Invite the class to discuss the setting of Ethan Frome and its role in the overall construction of the novel.

• Who is the narrator and where is he from?
• Is it significant that the narrator is from out of town? Why or why not?
• How does the narrator differ from those who supply him with information about Ethan Frome?
• How is Starkfield depicted? What does its name suggest?
• How does the narrator describes the town and its inhabitants? Is the tone celebratory, disdainful, or somewhere in between?

This exercise is partially to review the novel, but also to show students how to read closely by first beginning with a simple question (e.g., who is speaking?) and then move into a deeper reading of the situation with more in-depth questions. Be sure to point out to students how beginning with straight-forward questions and then “drilling down” with increasingly complex questions in the same line of thought can reveal quite a lot about a novel’s elements, be it narration, setting, or theme. Also note that questions can begin as factual ones (e.g. “What is the name of the town”) to more abstract, argumentative ones (e.g. “Is Wharton’s depiction of Starkfield always ‘stark,’ or does she also note some redeeming qualities of the landscape?”).

As students read through the whole of Ethan Frome , they can focus on any number of issues, while keeping track of their ideas in their reading journals. In addition to following attributes of regionalist literature, students might consider any or all of the following questions:

• Where in the text of Ethan Frome can we detect Wharton’s professed commitment to portraying life in New England “as it really was”?
• Based on Ethan Frome, what are some characteristics of rural New England and the people who live there?
• How do we know that the story is as much about Starkfield—the place—as it is about Ethan, the person? How are the characters and the setting intertwined?

With these in mind, conversations about literary realism, depictions of community and setting, and other such topics can be discussed throughout the class exploration of the novel. To help guide students further in their close-reading efforts, use the following activity as your class is reading the novel.

Activity 3. Reading Ethan Closely

To stimulate close reading of the novel, present the short excerpt from Edwin Bjorkman’s essay, written 2 years after the publication of Wharton’s novel. (Note that the excerpt can be found in the attached Ethan Frome: Close Reading handout .) First, ask students to explain Bjorkman’s central thesis: namely, that Ethan was ruined by staying in Starkfield—not by staying with Zeena. Then discuss:

• Is Bjorkman right to claim that, “in the author’s mind at least, the one thing needed to change Ethan’s life from a hell to a heaven would have been the full and free expression of his love for Matt”? Does the class share Bjorkman’s impression that Wharton concedes too much to “romantic love”?
• Is there any textual evidence to support Bjorkman’s claim that, “Had Zeena died and Matt married Ethan…inside of a few years life on that farm would have been practically what it was before Matt arrived”? Is there any textual evidence against that claim?
• How does Bjorkman’s critique square with Wharton’s own comments on New England regionalist literature?

After a brief discussion of these points, students will be ready to complete the “Close Reading” worksheet . The worksheet contains four pre-selected passages from Ethan Frome , each containing evidence for and/or against Bjorkman’s claims. With his claims in mind, as well as Wharton’s own professed reasons for writing the novel, students should analyze and annotate the passages. Then, in the space provided, students should write 3-4 sentences using each passage to address the following question:

Does the text portray Ethan as a victim of his social and physical environment, or of his own personal choices and temperament?

Once students have analyzed the four assigned passages, they should add additional quotations of their own choosing and repeat the passage analysis exercise for each one. Note that this activity can be assigned in a variety of ways—spread out over several evenings of reading; given as an in-class assignment for individuals or for groups; divided among groups who then must debate one another on either side of the issue; or any number of other options.

Depending on the time available, generate discussion based on quotations students find, questions such as those listed above, ideas students share from their reading journals, or return to the discussion about regionalism. Students will likely bring up issues such as free choice (or lack thereof) and personal agency, peer pressure, public versus private, personal versus social roles and responsibilities, and any number of others. Feel free to contextualize Wharton further as a realist who reflected, in Ethan Frome particularly, a more deterministic flair often seen in the naturalists. As with previous exercises, ask students to use textual evidence to back up their assertions.

As a final activity, consider asking the class to take one side or the other on the central issue of Ethan’s agency and debate the point. Give students at least 5 minutes to find key passages to use as evidence (and more time, if possible, so that the debate is substantive).

There are a number of potential assessment activities for this lesson plan. Student reading journals can be collected for review, as can the close reading worksheets. Teachers might evaluate the students’ group work or individual participation in the final debate in Activity 3. Attention to textual evidence, originality of ideas, and presentation of material all serve well as criteria for evaluation.

For an essay assignment, students who completed the Close Reading Worksheet will be ready to compose a short essay discussing the following claim: Ethan is portrayed as a victim of his social and physical environment . Students should not merely state their agreement or disagreement with the claim; they should try to articulate a more complicated reading of the text, indicating the extent to which the claim is true and the extent to which it must be qualified. They should give reasons for their conclusions, in the form of close analysis of textual passages. The most effective essays will strive to account for the whole body of evidence, noting counter-examples and anticipating counter-arguments along the way. Note that by this point, students have already done all the prep-work necessary to begin this assignment, as they will have already compiled and annotated at least eight passages that bear directly on the essay prompt.

As Wharton began her career, the realist school that had so dominated American fiction since the Civil War was just beginning to give way to the rising stars of literary naturalism. Indeed, in many ways Ethan Frome stands at the confluence of the realist and naturalist periods of American literary history. Wharton was claimed by the older generation of prominent realists (like William Dean Howells) for depicting life “as it really is”; yet her emphasis on the power and hostility of our physical and social environments also marked her as a naturalist. Students will notice that both of Wharton’s literary identities are on full display in Ethan Frome , making the text an ideal segue into the works of naturalists like Stephen Crane and Jack London. To explore the complex relationship between realism and naturalism, this lesson can be taught in conjunction with Crane, London, and Literary Naturalism .

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• Local Color
• Edith Wharton: A life in pictures and texts
• Ethan Frome
• Edith Wharton’s World

Materials & Media

Personal or social tragedy: worksheet 1 - ethan frome sources, personal or social tragedy: worksheet 2 - ethan frome close reading.

Ethan Frome

By edith wharton, ethan frome themes, passion and transgression.

Wharton shows the difficulties of repressed and illicit passion, passion without any sanctioned outlet. Ethan has had a loveless marriage, and Mattie Silver has been the catalyst for some very powerful emotions. Passion is blocked by social convention and circumstance. Wharton is a devotee of naturalism, and in many of her novels the environment is the true shaper of men's destinies. Ethan's situation dooms his passion for Mattie Silver. But passion should not necessarily be seen as a potential liberator; in the novel passion seems more like yet another force that robs men of their agency.

Determinism/Naturalism

Determinism is an important theme in this novel and in many of Wharton's other books. Starting with late-nineteenth century American literature, exposure to Darwin and thinkers like Huxley and Spencer began to have a strong influence on American novelists. Naturalism, the school of thought that makes individuals subject to forces of heredity and environment, was a new philosophical force in novels and plays. Individuals have little or no agency, and the environment destroys or nurtures as it sees fit. A person is either born to adapt or made to fail. In Ethan Frome , the influence of this Darwin-inspired outlook is undeniable. Wharton links it to an older form of determinism, the harsh philosophy of New England's old Calvinists, by choosing Starkfield, Massachusetts as her setting. The historical backdrop of Puritanism is for atmosphere rather than for religious instruction: there is little God in Wharton. The environment, which can be natural, cultural, or situational, is the force that decides men's fates.

The land and the people

The connection between the land and the people is a recurring theme of the novel. The narrator is amazed by the harshness of the Starkfield winters, and through his experience of the winter he comes to understand the character of the people. In her introduction to the novel, Wharton talks of the "outcropping granite" of New England, the powerful severity of its land and people. This connection between land and people is very much a part of naturalism; the environment is a powerful shaper of man's fate, and the novel represents this relationship by constantly describing the power and cruelty of Starkfield's winter.

Rural New England in winter is a land under siege, with tiny towns and tinier farms separated by vast expanses of cold and snow. The isolation is both physical and emotional. Ethan feels from a young age that he is alone in his sensitivity to natural beauty and his curiosity about science. By the time of the narrator, the tragedy of Ethan Frome has removed him even farther from the other people of Starkfield. The narrator remarks that in a town like Starkfield, people's lives are harsh enough so that they have little time to alleviate the pain and troubles of others.

Lost potential

This theme is closely connected to the themes of determinism, connection between the land and the people, and isolation. As Starkfield is not a nurturing world, Ethan's curiosity and intellect have had few outlets. Both in his youth and in his old age, the disparity between his intellectual curiosity and the limitations of his environment is painful. By the time the narrator meets him, Ethan is not only the ruin of the man that he was, but the ruin of the man that he could have been.

Loss and transience

Wharton also creates a feeling of loss and transience. Wharton uses the flashback structure to draw attention to buildings that once were beautiful that now have decayed. In Frome's youth the buildings are new and handsome, whereas by the time the narrator sees them they are old and faded. Beginning with Chapter 1, the tone of the descriptions is much more sensual: there is a sense of the town as a living place, with smells and colors described evocatively. But we are looking at the past, and it is a far cry from the dead world the narrator of the opening shows us. The effect is a very bleak portrayal of the relationship between a small town and the passage of time. In a big city, old buildings become historic, or they are replaced by new buildings. In Starkfield, old buildings simply fall into disrepair. Family fortunes dwindle, and men like Ethan Frome fade and deteriorate as slowly and certainly as the buildings of their immediate environment. The most horrible contrast is between the young and vibrant Mattie Silver and the broken and hateful old crone that the narrator meets in Chapter 10.

From the author's own introduction to the novel, written in 1922 and included in most editions, there is a sense of frustration with earlier portrayals of rural life in New England. Wharton is reacting against a kind of literature that romanticizes poverty and rural life. She depicts rural life as incredibly harsh. Poverty's greatest curse is that it takes away options. It traps Ethan at the farm, just as later it forces Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie to live under the same roof.

Ethan Frome Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Ethan Frome is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

in what way does the social and economic context of the passage most clearly help develop a theme

From the author's own introduction to the novel, written in 1922 and included in most editions, there is a sense of frustration with earlier portrayals of rural life in New England. Wharton is reacting against a kind of literature that...

Style Analysis

Check this out:

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/point-of-view-in-ethan-frome-english-literature-essay.php

Was Mattie silver smart?

Being smart in any sense is subjective. I know you are looking for an answer but it really is up to you. I don't think she was cunning or had intentions to usurp Ethan's wife. She loved Ethan and really didn't know what to do about it. She doesn't...

Study Guide for Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome study guide contains a biography of Edith Wharton, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Ethan Frome
• Ethan Frome Summary
• Character List
• Prelude and Chapters 1-2 Summary and Analysis

Essays for Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Ethan Frome.

• Restraints on Desire in Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence
• Ethan and Mattie: Victim and Victor
• Use of Setting in Ethan Frome
• A Natural[Ethan]istic Story
• Unavoidable Manipulators

Lesson Plan for Ethan Frome

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Introduction to Ethan Frome
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Ethan Frome Bibliography

E-Text of Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome E-Text contains the full text of Ethan Frome

Wikipedia Entries for Ethan Frome

• Introduction
• Development
• Adaptations

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Ethan Frome Essays

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, the lives of the characters are turned upside down but not in a sense that they are able to escape from the state are in. It’s more like the physical wellness of the characters and their social place within their microcosm is the one that is reversed rather...

Ethan From Essay Compare and Contrast the characters of Mattie and Zeena In the novel Ethan From, by Edith Wharton, the characters of Mattie Silver and Zeena From are dissimilar in many ways. Mattie is a compassionate, lively, outgoing woman who tries hard and has a positive outlook on life. Zeena...

Ethan From is the main character of Edith Wharton's tragic novel. Ethan lives the bitterness of his youth's lost opportunities, and dissatisfaction with his joyless life and empty marriage. Throughout the story Ethan is trapped by social limits and obligations to his wife. He lives an unhappy life...

Crystal Spears Professor Brown American Classics April 27, 2008 Frome’s Desire and the Path to the Elm Of the many themes present in Edith Wharton's tragic novel, Ethan Frome that could be discussed at length, one of these that above all seem to drive the plot of the novel from event to event...

2 191 words

The novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is a tale of a man and the eventual downfall of his life and well-being. Ethan emerges as the main protagonist and hero of the story. He is a proud man of tall stature and good nature. Although Ethan is not of noble blood and is very poor, he is still seen...

Many have experienced the miserable dilemma that two conflicting desires can create. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Stern once wrote, “Nobody, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength...

The tragic novel turned movie, Ethan Frome, has two main female roles: Zeena and Mattie. These two women have very diverse personalities. Zeena can be best described a controlling, over-bearing, self absorbed person who thrives for attention. On the opposite, Mattie can be looked at as lively and...

Ethan Frome and The Awakening Edna Pontellier, from Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and Ethan Frome, from Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, both wished to elevate from the societies they lived in and hated. They each come from separate backgrounds that are immensely different. Edna is from the high class...

Ethan Frome "Character" Ethan Frome is the protagonist of the novel. A "ruin of a man," according to The Narrator . He appears to be tall, " He has "strong shoulders" , blue eyes and brown hair . He has a "powerful look," that is "bleak". Ethan is a poor man who is simple, straightforward, and...

Ethan Frome Essay In many books, a hero has a major flaw, which contributes to his downfall in the story. In the book Ethan Frome, the main character, Ethan, encounters a tragedy and is brought to ruin and suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of tragic flaw. Tragic flaw is a flaw in...

Matt Grann January 4, 2009 Ethan Frome is an example of realist text for many reasons. The novel has many gritty facts of life and explains the lower class. It also has shows the harshness of reality. Finally, Ethan Frome is an example of men having no free will and can’t avoid their fate. Ethan...

In the novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, foreshadowing is used to show and explain plot and conflict within the novel. The narrator’s introduction to the story describes Ethan as a crippled man who has had a “smash-up“(11), foreshadowing that his relationship with Mattie will meet a tragic end...

Ethan Frome, the title character of the novel by Edith Warton, lives in a world that constrains him; one that he is unable to escape from. The prominent use of winter imagery throughout this novel conveys this ideas of detachment and isolation. Winters in Starkfield, the setting for this story...

Picture yourself, trapped in a lackluster world, where everything seems to have a shade of gray. Everyone around you seems to be moving in an excessively slow pace. Yet you’re not able to leave that place, not being able to find a hint of love or joy anywhere you look. That place is called...

Diego Rubio Ms. Tan English 11 Honors 10 January 2011 Ethan Frome: Torn Between Two Worlds The novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is set in turn-of-the-century New England, in the fake town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. During this time, both men and women were torn between duty and morality...

Rough Draft: Ethan’s Colors Symbolism approach to interpretation has so many possibilities—so many paths to consider! An exciting approach to interpretation and criticism, comparable to hunting, finding the symbols, an object or image that, although interesting in its own right, stands...

2 548 words

Love is supposedly such a strong force that a couple would die to be together forever. The force that traps the escape of love and living happily together for a couple is almost just as strong. In Ethan Frome, Ethan falls out of love with his wife Zeena and into love with his house girl Mattie...

1 219 words

The tale of forbidden love binds itself within many famous works of literature in order to provoke the human mind into situations similar to those of Adam and Eve of the Bible. The “forbidden fruit” plays an important role in the books of Ethan Frome and Jane Eyre in the form of...

In Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, setting is an important element. The setting greatly influences the characters, transportation, and activities. The setting takes place in a small town called “Starkfield”. Starkfield is a town that is just like its name, it is boring, barren...

Ethan Frome Title Uncontrollable elements, affect one’s decisions. Naturalists believe human behavior is controlled by social and economic conditions, environmental forces, and internal stresses surrounded amongst one’s self. Edith Wharton’s novel Ethan Frome, is the epitome of Naturalistic belief...

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By Michael Rothfeld

• May 7, 2024

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When Ms. Necheles, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, tried to portray that visit as related to the reality show, Ms. Graff said she assumed that, but did not know.

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Ben Protess , Jonah E. Bromwich , William K. Rashbaum and Maggie Haberman contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

Michael Rothfeld is an investigative reporter in New York, writing in-depth stories focused on the city’s government, business and personalities. More about Michael Rothfeld

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