Who Is the Victim in Ethan Frome

It is under the most repressive limitations that the strength of one’s character and one’s capability to defy and transcend such limits can truly be measured. This concept is confirmed in Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, the story of a young man trapped in an unfulfilling marriage to a sickly older lady. Ethan and Mattie Silver, a second major character and the object of Ethan’s affection, each react to the oppressive setting and energy of nearby convention fairly differently in their never ever-ending battle to be with each other. Ethan falls victim to the power of regional convention even though Mattie displays her untiring spirit and defies the social norm.

Ethan Frome, the novel’s protagonist, is an unhappy young man who is caught in a quandary over whether or not to stay loyal to his wife and prolong his misery, or to pursue his passion for Mattie. His dilemma happens simply because of the struggle in between his passions and the constraints placed on him by the public. In the end, Ethan lacks the inner strength required to escape the oppressive forces of the setting, his wife, and convention.

1 of the first examples of Ethan’s moral cowardice is observed on the evening when Zeena departs for Bettsbridge, leaving Ethan and Mattie alone. They go about their usual domestic duties somewhat gingerly, avoiding the topic that is genuinely on both of their minds, their connection. “Now, in the warm lamp lit area, with all its ancient implications of conformity and order, she seemed infinitely farther away from him and much more unapproachable” (Wharton 81). That night, Ethan is also restrained by the apparent presence of his wife in the space, even although she genuinely is not there. “Ethan, a moment earlier, had felt himself on the brink of eloquence but the mention of Zeena had paralysed him” (Wharton 73). Despite the fact that Ethan is tempted to act on his feelings, especially now that he and Mattie are alone, he permits himself to be mastered by the setting and his wife, and is unable to go beyond a timid kiss of Mattie’s sewing fabric. His passivity is demonstrated once more later in the novel when he plans to run west upon hearing of Zeena’s dismissal of Mattie, but is unable to muster the courage to bring himself to lie to his neighbors, the Hales, to get the cash he would need to have to do so. He convinces himself that “There was no way out – none. He was a prisoner for life” (Wharton 117). Ethan is so concerned that the rest of the town might shun such a bold, rebellious action and believe significantly less of him, that he is held back, as soon as once again, by his obedience to accepted social customs.

Mattie Silver is a lively, eye-catching young woman who, at the age of twenty, has turn into a penniless orphan. Obtaining had no success with numerous jobs because of her wellness, Mattie comes to reside with her cousin, Zeena, to assist with household tasks. With her beauty, charm, and sweet disposition, Mattie brings life back into the Frome house, and proves that she is of a strong enough thoughts to stand against social convention.

In the first scene of the novel, Mattie is pressured by Dennis Eady to let him to give her a ride home. She coolly states, “Goodnight! I’m not getting in” (Wharton 39). Refusing to let anyone disrupt her cheerful temperament, Mattie instantly establishes the concept that she does what she wants to do she has a thoughts of her personal. Also in the opening scene, distinct focus is paid to the “cherry-coloured” scarf she wears on her head and twirls about herself while dancing. The association among Mattie and the colour red proves to be appropriate since she falls in enjoy with Ethan, a married man, and red is the color that is most usually utilised to symbolize sin and passion. When Zeena deliberately hires a new girl to care for herself, Mattie is forced to leave, but cannot bear the believed of letting go of Ethan. At the climax of the novel, her true, passionate, reckless, and somewhat immature self shines via. Even though sledding throughout their final hour to be spent collectively, Mattie rashly asks Ethan to steer their sled into a big elm tree at the bottom of the hill so they can die collectively. She convinces him to obey her request by pleading with him, “Ethan, where’ll I go if I leave you? I don’t know how to get along alone” (Wharton 143). This statement unveils her impulsive, adolescent nature such qualities may have produced Ethan believe otherwise of attempting to take his own life at her mere request, had he not been so blinded by the beautiful source of escape she had seemed to supply all through the novel. Nevertheless, her words also reveal her disregard for neighborhood convention in that she is ready to give in to any thought, no matter how foolish, that enters her thoughts. Mattie fell in adore with Ethan, openly expressed her feelings for him, and was not afraid to follow her heart.

Each Ethan and Mattie struggle to keep their passions from getting overtaken by the energy of local convention. Battling each the lengthy, oppressive winters of Starkfield and a rough adolescence, Mattie Silver is still capable to be herself and develop as an person even though providing a breath of fresh air on the Frome farm. On the other hand, Ethan makes it possible for the climate, his ailing wife, and most of all, his strict adherence to nearby convention, to stop him from acting upon his adore for Mattie. In novella form, Wharton supplies the reader with both a victim and victor of society’s conventions in the late element of the nineteenth century.