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Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton uses a good deal of irony to its advantage. In literature, we generally talk about 3 different types of irony— verbal, situational, and dramatic. We define dramatic...
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Ethan Frome
The differences between John Proctor and Ethan Frome indicate that Proctor as an assertive and proactive individual, while Frome is a passive one. John Proctor is active while Frome is passive....
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Ethan Frome
The narrator of Ethan Frome notes the "unusually forlorn and stunted look" of Ethan Frome's house after the narrator passes an orchard of withered apple trees (page 8). The narrator says that the...
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Ethan Frome
One of the universal truths in Ethan Frome is the veracity of the saying "be careful what you wish for." Ethan wishes to remain by the side of his wife's cousin, Mattie, who he has fallen in love...
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Ethan Frome
The best way to answer this question is, perhaps, by rephrasing it. A suggestion for this would be: “How would Mattie’s death influence Ethan’s life?”, or “Would Mattie’s death make a...
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Ethan Frome
The literal definition of the word “archetype” is “prime example” or the “original form” of something. When applied to literature, an archetypal character, an archetypal symbol, or...
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Ethan Frome
According to the Oxford Dictionary, in literature, a tragedy is "a play dealing with tragic events and having an unhappy ending, especially one concerning the downfall of the main character." As...
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Ethan Frome
Ethan’s marriage to Zeena took place during one of Starkfield’s long, cold winters. It was also after a long period of pain and sorrow, when Ethan was growing desperate between the impending...
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Ethan Frome
While Ethan's downfall comes from a series of unfortunate and almost needless events, they all seem to stem from the two most important tragedies in Ethan's life: the deaths of his father and...
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Ethan Frome
While Zeena has a plethora of negative traits, it is the "asthmatic" silence in which she engages what would definitely qualify as the hardest thing for Ethan to tolerate. In chapter IV, we find...
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Ethan Frome
After careful examination of the novel, the closest thing that you are referring to is the instance where Mattie asks Ethan to commit suicide by running into the elm tree in the assumption that,...
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Ethan Frome
One of the central themes in Ethan Frome is the inevitability of tragedy, particularly when fate simply seems to put specific variables that work against one's best laid plans. Yet, all these...
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Ethan Frome
The quotation you found from Henry Ford is a good starting point for the essay you are planning to write. Since you only have two pages in which to complete the assignment, you will want to focus...
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Ethan Frome
We learn quickly that, upon Zeena's return in chapter 6, the first person to catch her ongoing wrath is poor Jotham Powell. The hired man, who was asked to pick up Zeena at the flats, had a bad...
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Ethan Frome
The setting of Ethan Frome is New England, specifically the town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. While the town is fictional, the description that accompanies it very much resembles a traditional...
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Ethan Frome
An argument can certainly be made for this moral of warning against the assuming of responsibilities to which a person cannot resign himself. For, in a moment of weakness in his fear of living...
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Ethan Frome
Edith Wharton’s 1911 novel Ethan Frome tells the story of an unhappily-married couple, Ethan and Zeena, and their live-in helper, Mattie, Zeena’s cousin. Mattie is a “big city” girl from...
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Ethan Frome
By "locking in" the setting of the novel, we are saying "how is it necessary to the story that this action take place in the time and place that it does?" Clearly we could nudge any story in time...
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Ethan Frome
Wharton manipulates our feelings by presenting Ethan and the girl he loves, Mattie, in a wholly sympathetic light while depicting Ethan’s wife Zeena as a mean and miserable figure intent on...
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Ethan Frome
The three primary characters in Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton are Zenobia, Mattie Silver, and of course the title character, Ethan. As your question suggests, each of them does "engage in a process...
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Ethan Frome
The primary themes of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome are suitably demonstrated in the 1993 film version directed by John Madden, though they are not all presented as effectively or accurately as...
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Ethan Frome
Three specific literary devices are used in the movie version of Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, and all three of them are also used in the novel. The use of a framed story, of flashback, and of...
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Ethan Frome
Of course there will be differences between a novel and a movie made from that novel; the question for readers is always what the director will choose to omit, add, or change. In the case of Ethan...
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Ethan Frome
Chapter two of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome, we discover Ethan's feelings for Mattie Silver are certainly more than platonic, though it is equally clear that he has done virtually nothing about...
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Ethan Frome
Ethan’s house is symbolic of lost prosperity and vitality. Ethan and his house are both run-down and barely held together. Although Ethan is only in his fifties, he looks much older. His house...
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Ethan Frome
One of the things the reader learns about Ethan from another character is his age in the prologue. Ethan is introduced to us in the prologue as a middle-aged man. His age is very important,...
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Ethan Frome
The narrator of Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome comes to visit Starkfield and hears about the story of the Ethan Frome from numerous people.The narrator claims to have heard the story, "bit by bit,...
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Ethan Frome
Ethan does not like Denis Eady as he is jealous of him. Unlike Ethan, who is shy, unhappily married, and struggles to make a living, Eady is a confident, successful young businessman, like his...
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Ethan Frome
In all, the neighbors of Starkfield's general opinion about Ethan is that the man has had more than his share of tragedy and misery. Guess he’s been in Starkfield too many winters The fact is...
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Ethan Frome
When one of the residents exclaims, "That man touch a hundred?He looks as if he were dead and in hell now!" the terribly conflicting life of Ethan Frome is evinced on his face. From his youth,...
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Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome’s house is very bare and stark, old and run-down, and missing the “L.” Described as a lonely New England farmhouse, the “Frome farm was always ’bout as bare's a milkpan when...
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Ethan Frome
We are first introduced to Ethan Frome in the Prologue. He is described as broken, yet still making an impact. Even then he was the most striking figure in Starkfield, though he was but the ruin...
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Ethan Frome
The eponymous character Ethan Frome is a tragic hero because he is flawed and because fate is against him. A tragic hero is described as a character with either great traits, or with promising...
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Ethan Frome
The literary techniques employed in the quotation include hyperbole (exaggeration) and metaphor. When Ethan could sweat over ’em both from sun-up to dark he kinder choked a living out of ’em...
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Ethan Frome
Harmon Gow, known as the town's "oracle" is known in such a way because of the in-depth knowledge and experiences that he has lived through in Starkfield. As he claims, he had been living there...
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Ethan Frome
Let's first define ambivalence in itself. It is a state of doubt where the individual experiences conflicting emotions due to his or her own uncertain feelings about a situation. Main character...
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Ethan Frome
In chapter 6 we witness one of Ethan's many desperate moments regarding Zeena. After Zeena's relished pickle dish accidentally breaks, Ethan has to find glue to mend it before Zeena returns from...
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Ethan Frome
We learn about Mattie's feelings directly and indirectly. In chapter 1, Mattie arrives for the first time in Starkfield to take care of her far cousin who is Ethan Frome's sickly wife, Zeena....
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Ethan Frome
An understatement is used when someone claims to be or to do something that is clearly less great or less important than what it really is. An example of understatement in chapter 1 is found when...
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Ethan Frome
An adequate summary of a novel explicates both character and plot with the two tied together by a theme. With regard to the tragic tale of Ethan Frome, you may wish to tie together the plot and...
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Ethan Frome
In her Author's Note to Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton explains that she deliberated on how to tell the story of Frome as she felt that she must not "elaborate and complicate" the feelings of the...
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Ethan Frome
As what has been termed a "study in frustration, loneliness, and moral responsibility," Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome presents several conflicts for Ethan Frome, both internal and external: External...
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Ethan Frome
In her essay,"Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and the Question of Meaning," Elizabeth Ammons examines the novella as an inverted fairy tale modeled after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as Wharton...
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Ethan Frome
Perhaps two of the most recurring themes in Edith Wharton's novelEthan Frome are isolation and loneliness. We see that these two elements seem to permeate the novel and give it its frigid and sad...
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Ethan Frome
The repetitive patterns or sequences in theme, narrative and symbols (also known as motifs), in Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome are a direct manifestation of the atmosphere that surrounds the sad...
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Ethan Frome
Even though the narrator of Edith Wharton'sEthan Frome,as well as the main character, are males, the novel could fall under the genre of Feminist literature due to its presentation of women as...
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Ethan Frome
There are a couple of instances where the topic of Mattie's departure is discussed in Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. However, we first hear about it in chapter II, after Ethan picks Mattie up from...
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Ethan Frome
Simply put, the sled in Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome represents freedom in more ways than one. However, it will later become a symbol of oppression and despair. The story takes place in the...
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Ethan Frome
The novel is much more about the moral dilemmas of its main characters than it is about meaningless cruelty. The cruelty of the novel, if there is any, comes from very specific motivations and not...
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Ethan Frome
It is in the prologue of Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome where we find the description of both Ethan and his place of residence. The prologue serves as a wonderful conduit to help us realize the...
