Figurative Language In Ethan Frome
Thoughts on a section of Ethan Frome… (p.33 -34)
Edith Wharton quite deliberately brings together human emotion and the environment in her novella Ethan Frome. The characters are circumscribed by the environment in which they exist and the impossibility of escape from the environmental forces of nature, heredity and place shape the characters of the text. A moment of hope arises as Mattie and Ethan walk home together from the dance and a more romantic sense of possibility emerges. The reader is drawn to the love of Ethan and Mattie quite subtly – it grows almost organically from innocent moments shared and this is perhaps why the reader does not see their ‘affair’ as adulterous. We share the hope that glimmers in the bleak cold that is Starkfield and its characters.
Ethan’s sensitivity reflects an important aspect of his character that is …show more content…
The sunset is red with ‘cloud flocks over slopes of golden stubble’ with strong ‘blue hemlocks’ – the intensity of the colours reflect the intensity of his emotions and contrast with the blank, barren whiteness that has characterised descriptions of Starkfield up to this point. It is as if Mattie, whose surname sparkles with colour, transforms the landscape and Ethan sees the world anew when he is with her.
His masculine ego is hinted at by Wharton in the admiration Mattie displays for his knowledge of the environment. We have been encouraged to view him as the powerless and emasculated husband, browbeaten by a shrewish wife. Mattie inspires a sense of manhood within him. This is interestingly displayed at the moment of crisis when the pickle dish is shattered as Ethan takes control and feels the ‘thrilling sense of mastery’ as he reassembles the dish. The symbolic nature of the dish representing the marriage of Ethan to Zeena is shattered and Ethan is liberated by the moment – however
Edith Wharton quite deliberately brings together human emotion and the environment in her novella Ethan Frome. The characters are circumscribed by the environment in which they exist and the impossibility of escape from the environmental forces of nature, heredity and place shape the characters of the text. A moment of hope arises as Mattie and Ethan walk home together from the dance and a more romantic sense of possibility emerges. The reader is drawn to the love of Ethan and Mattie quite subtly – it grows almost organically from innocent moments shared and this is perhaps why the reader does not see their ‘affair’ as adulterous. We share the hope that glimmers in the bleak cold that is Starkfield and its characters.
Ethan’s sensitivity reflects an important aspect of his character that is …show more content…
The sunset is red with ‘cloud flocks over slopes of golden stubble’ with strong ‘blue hemlocks’ – the intensity of the colours reflect the intensity of his emotions and contrast with the blank, barren whiteness that has characterised descriptions of Starkfield up to this point. It is as if Mattie, whose surname sparkles with colour, transforms the landscape and Ethan sees the world anew when he is with her.
His masculine ego is hinted at by Wharton in the admiration Mattie displays for his knowledge of the environment. We have been encouraged to view him as the powerless and emasculated husband, browbeaten by a shrewish wife. Mattie inspires a sense of manhood within him. This is interestingly displayed at the moment of crisis when the pickle dish is shattered as Ethan takes control and feels the ‘thrilling sense of mastery’ as he reassembles the dish. The symbolic nature of the dish representing the marriage of Ethan to Zeena is shattered and Ethan is liberated by the moment – however