Keller
September 19, 2014
Ethan Frome Topic Sentences
Intro:
1. Topic Sentence: Morality travels among people every day, coaxing them to make ethical decisions; yet, passion follows people inviting them to succumb to morality, opting instead for pleasure.
2. Thesis: In her novella Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton illustrates the constraints morality has among ambition, as they consume Frome’s conscience and impede his fulfillment of passions.
Body:
1. Topic Sentence: Wharton uses the bitter winters of Starkfield to illustrate the environment’s impact on its inhabitants’ way of thinking.
The town’s description of Ethan is synonymous with the winter saying, “…he’s been in Starkfield too many winters” (6).
Metaphor of winter to Ethan
Granite outcroppings as opposed to lush liveliness of nature
Descriptions of Mattie (the outsider)
Descriptions of Zeena (inhabitant)
2. Topic Sentence: Wharton’s juxtaposition of Mattie and Zeena demonstrates the origin of Ethan’s impure thoughts, yet raises a battles of morality.
Wharton’s use of sexual imagery through her language and sepcifiaclly the failed communion suggests a struggle between Frome’s desires and his lack of action.
The flame representation of Zeena and Ethan’s love.
“…it was surprising what a home-like look the mere absence of Zeena gave it…” (28-29).
Zeena’s “presence” at most climactic longings through the cat, or her face on the sled.
3. Much like the stain of Starkfield on Ethan, his reality as a married poor man seems inescapable in comparison to his ambition for a life with Mattie.
He fails at deceiving the Hales to attain money to venture on his affair.
Ethan’s failed ‘come alongs’
Irony of the last quote of the novel, “I don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Frome’s up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard…”
“anchoring” of Starkfield
Conclusion:
1. Topic Sentence: Ultimately, Ethan Frome’s ultimate escape (death), becomes his ultimate entrapment; rather than battling for his fantasies of Mattie, he surrenders himself to death as a means of escaping reality.
2. Concluding Sentence: Edith Wharton exhibits the battle between morality and desires through Ethan Frome and the inescapability of choosing one opposed to the other.
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