Desire in Ethan Frome Essay

Ethan Frome- Prompt 2

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton tells the story of a man who desires a woman that is not his wife (Zeena)But due to the moral and social conventions that Ethan must face, this impedes on his ability to fulfill his passions with the other woman (Mattie). Having professed their love for each other, and realizing they will never be able to live happily together with the constraints placed on them by society, Ethan and Mattie decide to abandon lifes burdensby abandoning life itself. This led to a failed suicide attempt, one that further leads to an ironic change of events. Although the novels introductory and concluding passages are told from the narrators point of view. A bulk of the novel is told by Ethan Frome himself.

Throughout most of the novel, Ethans wife is not presented with any positive attributeswhereas Mattie (Zeenas cousin) is presented as the epitome of glowing, youthful attractiveness. This renders Ethans decision to cheat on his wife plausible, and completely understandable . Although the situation may seem acceptable the way it is presented due to the social and moral order of the fictional town Stark field their dream of being together would be deemed unacceptable and frowned upon. Ethan, knowing that he loves Mattie and that he despises his whiny wife he decides the only solution would be to go west with Mattie, finish his schooling and live a happy life with her.

Ethan, believing that his plan was infallible as long as he has enough time to make preparations, went on to spend nights with Mattie falling more and more in love her. His decision to cheat on his wife, goes from plausible and realistic , to implausible and unrealistic when his wife Zeena orders him to get rid of Mattie unexpectedly. Although Mattie and Zeena are cousins, Zeena has grown suspicious of their affair and orders the driver(Jotham) to take Mattie to the stationso that she may go home. She also informs her husband that she plans to get a new hired girl to help out around the house. Ethan argues with the decision his wife has made to get a new hired girl but doesnt mention that he is in love with Mattie and doesnt want her to leave. His plans to elope and run away to the West does not seem as infallible after all, because he cannot bring himself to lie to his neighbors in order to procure the necessary moneyand so on.

With an unrealistic outcome in sight and Ethan unable to procure the necessary money, he decides to take Mattie to the station himself, and return home and see to his wife. However, on their way to the train station they stop at a hill upon which they had once proposed to go sledding, and decide to go through with the sledding despite the dangers of trees. This leads to an unimaginable turn of events when Mattie suggests a suicide pact; that they run themselves into a tree so they may spend their last moments together. Ethan is reluctant at first, but decides to go through with it anyway. They go down the hill and Mattie orders him to run the sleigh into a tree, which should kill them instantly. On their way down, a vision of Zeenas face forces Ethan to turn away at the last minute. As a result of this Ethan and Mattie wake up crippled, not dead.

Now crippled, Ethan if forced to stay home with his miserable wife, and a paralyzed whiny Mattie. His dreams of eloping with Mattie is not only unrealistic to him now, but nearly impossible. The decisions that he has made in hopes of getting away from his wife--- has only brought him closer to the realities of life; he must stay with his wife until death do they part.

The narrator is an unnamed gentleman who spends the night in the Frome household. He returns the next day to town, where he gets questioned by a local resident; Mrs. Hale, who is bursting with curiosity. After asking what it was like in the house ( since no one has been there since the accident), Mrs. Hale makes a gruesome comparison; that the life inside the Fromes household, is no different from the life of the Fromes that lay in the small cemetary behind the house. This comparison between the Fromes life and the corpses existence in the graveyard emphasizes certain aspects of Ethans fate: it underlines the permanence of his situation, implying that his imprisonment is irreversibly, like death. Which goes to show, Ethans unrealistic attempt to escape his life ---by death, only landed him in a more realistic situation similar to death.