Love Lost in Ethan Frome Essay

LOVES LOST

Edith Whartons novel, Ethan Frome, appears to be at least somewhat autobiographical. There are many similarities between Edith Wharton and the character from her novel, Ethan Frome.

Both Ethan and Edith married for the wrong reasons. Neither were in love with their spouses. After his mother died, Ethan could not bear to be alone again, and therefore, asked Zeena to marry him. Edith married Edward Wharton so she would not be an old maid. Both married persons many years older than themselves. Zeena was eight years Ethans senior and Edward was thirteen years older than Edith.

Ethan Frome was published in 1911, which means she wrote it somewhere between 1909 and 1911. During this time period Ediths husband was becoming increasingly ill. He was in and out of mental institutions and was even abusive toward her. Kellogg states, He picked senseless quarrels, shouted abuse and in general humiliated his wife and embarrassed their friends (190). Referring to Edward, Kellog writes, He was treated by a New York neurologist, Dr. Kinnicutt, for nervous disorders. . . he took cures, he had massage, he had electrical treatments (189) A very good friend and colleague of Ediths, James Henry, wrote that Edith is living in hell (Kellogg 190). He believed that separating from Edward was the only thing to save her life. By 1908, the marriage had deteriorated until nothing of mutual fulfillment or good was left in it (Kellogg 188).

Whartons character, Ethan Frome, was unhappy in his marriage almost from the beginning. Soon after they were married, his wife, Zeena, became ill. It appears she was a hypochondriac, attempting to make people believe she was sicker than she was and feel sorry for her. Like Edward, she too went to many doctors and tried many cures that did not work. She would suddenly pack her things to seek the advice of some new doctor (Wharton 27). Her abrupt resolve to seek medical advice showed that, as usual, she was wholly absorbed in her health (Wharton 27) Zeena was far from a loving wife. She was a sickly and meanhearted woman who took it out on her husband with meanheartedness and silence toward him.

Both Edith and Ethan looked for love elsewhere. Edith found love with a fellow writer and intellectual, Morton Fullerton. They had much more in common than she and Teddy. Dwight reports that Edith hoped to discover for the first time total human communion with a man (144). She was talking about Morton Fullerton. He was an attractive, expatriate American living in Paris. They met in the spring of 1908 and continued their affair until summer of 1910. This is around the time that Edith would have been working on Ethan Frome.

Ethan Frome found deep love for Mattie Silver. Unlike his wife, Zeena, Mattie was fun-loving, had energy and did not complain or show signs of sickness. He wanted to run away out West and spend the rest of his life with Mattie. However, in his wife was sick and he could not leave her.

Both Edith and Ethan are in love with someone they cannot truly have. Dwight states, referring to Edith and Morton, In the second year of their affair matters of a different kind began to mar the picture. Morton had other lovers, including men. Edith slowly realized that even if she werent married, she and Morton could never be together the way she wanted them to be. Ethan, too, finally realized he and Mattie could never be together, except in death. When Edith was writing Ethan Frome, she was unhappy in her marriage and beginning to realize the love of her life could not be hers. Edith wrote the novel in the midst of an unhappy home life and a want for a man she cannot have. The same can be said for Ethan Frome. He, like Edith, is married to a sickly, cold-hearted person, and loves someone he cannot have. By late summer, 1909, Edith was insisting on a change in her relationship with Morton. It is impossible, in the nature of things, that our lives should run parallel much longer (Dwight 151). The affair with Fullerton worked its way from rapture to disappointment and ended the summer of 1910. Ethan Fromes affair, though never consummated ended with he and Matties botched suicide attempt.

Too many similarities exist between Ediths and Ethans lives, i.e. the unhappiness at home; the sickly spouses; the love that could not be, that they cannot be ignored. Edith Whartons novel Ethan Frome is somewhat autobiographical.

Works Cited

Dwight, Eleanor. Edith Wharton An Extraordinary Life. New York. 1994.

Kellogg, Grace. The Two Lives of Edith Wharton. New York. 1965.

Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. A Norton Critical Edition. First Edition. New York. 1995