Theme and Symbol in Ethan Frome Essay example -- Character Analysis

Divided between the two women, Ethan Frome is a highly bewildered man. He seeks to find virtually ease and freedom represented by Mattie, but society would not allow him to do so. Society preferably compels him to accept its burden represented for him in the shape of Zeena, although it means the vilify of his life. The accessible pressure, whether it amazes the form of conventional morality or any separate forms, offers Ethan blind opposition at alwaysy turn, leashing his actions like the jerk of a chain (p.3). Aware that he has not even the m stary to take Mattie with him to the West, for instance, Ethan starts on foot for Starkfield to ask Andrew Hale, the village carpenter, for an advance on some lumber. In this episode, he is soon intercepted on the behavior by Mrs. Hale, who, good-hearted to his sympathy by a few kind words, baffles his attempt at the very moment when his is about to revolt. Throughout the fresh, this invisible debate of social pressure is consta ntly imaged to Ethan as a prison The inexorable facts unkindly in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. in that respect was no way out-none. He was a prisoner for life. (p.134). A little bit subsequently(prenominal) in the story, Ethan, watching Matties trunk being carried away in a sleigh to the station, has the feeling that his heart was bound with cords which an unseen hand was tightening with every ick of the clock. (p.147). Again he expresses the same emotion later when he says to Mattie as they make the way to the station, Im tied hand and foot, Mattie. There isnt a thing I can do. (p.158) Beca custom Ethan suffers from inner conflict in his own mind, the group pressure of convention and morality seems to have little, if any, index finger over him. If, indeed, social force had been involved in h... ...f her mind were as incalculable as the flit of a bird in the branches (p.46). To Ethan Frome, Mattie is his one ray of light (p.134) which gives meaning t o his bleak existence but is to be extinguished by Zeenas cruelty. The image of light is further reinforce by the bright moon. Which is mentioned over and over in the novel. Ethan Frome is the only book Edith Wharton ever wrote that the authors name is readily -and deservedly- associated with, and it has in fact been held in higher wonder than any other of her novels. This book is a brilliant makes a use of imagery and symbolism. The destiny of human existence which Ethan can never work up is more clearly sharpened by Whartons skillful use of distinguish images and symbols. More significantly, it is by her use of this symbolic imagery that the characterization of the novel can be fully understand.