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Salacious Desires In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

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Salacious Desires In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
Salacious Desires Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, juxtaposes the treatment and attention Ethan directs to Zeena and Mattie. The different treatment between the two further reveals Ethan’s internal selfish thoughts to be with Mattie. As Ethan and Mattie have more interactions and time to themselves, “The grow of passion he had felt for her had melted into an aching tenderness” (Wharton 85). Ethan’s selfishness is the antagonist of Ethan and Zeena’s marriage, and it acts as a barrier to the struggle between his affection for Mattie and his existing relationship. Although Ethan’s selfish desires to be with Mattie are shameful, he stoops to beyond a level of inconceivable selfishness, and schemes to flee Starkfield in order to escape Zeena to forever
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