Ethan Frome | Characters

The characterizations in Ethan Frome are simple and intense. The three main characters have been stripped of all extraneous gestures and ornamentation. What remain are the essential passions and frustrations of human existence. In her introduction to the novella, Wharton compares the characters to the "granite outcroppings" of the New England landscape they inhabit: they are "but half-emerged from the soil, and scarcely more articulate." Life had always presented itself "starkly and summarily" to these characters.

When readers first see Ethan Frome, twenty-four years...

[The entire page is 268 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass