The structure and point of view Edith Wharton employed in Ethan Frome is complex and sophisticated. The novel begins with an unnamed narrator speaking of events that had happened to him in Starkfield, Massachusetts, some years before; It then employs a flashback to a time twenty-four years earlier, a time when the narrator was not present. At this point, Wharton changes from a first-person point of view to a third-person omniscient point of view, limited to Ethan. The body of the novel is developed through the flashback, but at its conclusion, Wharton returns to the narrator and his memory of events, creating a shocking and tragic conclusion to the mystery of Ethan Frome's life.
In her Introduction, Wharton discusses the artistic challenges of bringing her tale to the page. Her literary composition of Ethan Frome is complex, but she sees her characters as simple people whom the reader can...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
interpret and understand without a great deal of intervention or assistance by the writer. Wharton makes this point in these lines from the Introduction:
It appears to me, indeed, that, while an air of artificiality is lent to a tale of complex and sophisticated people which the novelist causes to be guessed at and interpreted by any mere looker-on, there need be no such drawback if the looker-on is sophisticated, and the people he interprets are simple. If he is capable of seeing all around them, no violence is done to probability in allowing him to exercise this faculty . . . .
Taken in its entirety, Wharton's Introduction provides the reader with an explanation--and a defense--of the structure of the novel. She also explains why so much is left for the reader to interpret, particularly in regard to her characters. She assumes that her readers will be sophisticated and therefore will understand the literary choices she has made. As she concludes, she emphasizes this belief:
But this is all self-evident, and needs explaining only to those who have never thought of fiction as an art of composition.
Edith Wharton expressed a great deal of faith in her readers.
What does Edith Wharton presume about her readers and provide for them in the introduction to Ethan Frome?
In the Introduction to Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton says: "Every novelist, again, who 'intends upon' his art, has lit upon such subjects, and been fascinated by the difficulty of presenting them in the fullest relief, yet without an added ornament, or a trick of drapery of lightning. This was my task, if I were to tell the story of Ethan Frome; and my scheme of construction - which met with the immediate and unqualified disapproval of the few friends to whom I tentatively outlined it - I still think justified in the given case. It appears to me, indeed, that, while an air of artificiality is lent to a tale of complex and sophisticated people which the novelist causes to be guessed at and interpreted by any mere looker-on, there need be no such drawback if the looker-on is sophisticated, and the people he interprets are simple. If he is capable of seeing all around them, no violence is done to probability in allowing him to exercise this faculty; it is natural enough that he should act as the sympathizing intermediary between his rudimentary characters and the more complicated minds to whom he is trying to present them. But this is all self-evident, and needs explaining only to those who have never thought of fiction as an art of composition."
In her introduction, Wharton explains that sometimes a story doesn't have to have complicated characters and a deeply symbolic storyline in order to make a point. This idea was met with some criticism from her peers and other fellow authors, but she stuck to it, and created Ethan Frome from it. She assumes, in writing this novel, that her readers are complicated, deep, thoughtful individuals who are capable of analyzing literature and forming conclusions about it. She also assumes that because we are thinkers, she can create characters who are simple and uncomplicated; they don't need to be super complex and difficult to understand. Because we ourselves are complex, we impose our own complicated interpretations on things; the characters merely need to provide a platform for that interpretation.
So, in Ethan Frome, Wharton paints pretty straightforward characthers--the duty-bound and lonely Ethan Frome, the manipulative and bitter Zeena, and the naive and innocently beautiful Mattie. It is upon these straightforward and simple characters that Wharton trusts we, as the thinking reader, will be able to draw conclusions about. She provides a simple storyline that is the foundation for a more complex moral and character discussion. I hope that those thoughts helped; good luck!