The novel starts the story off the narrator in a small town called Stark field in New England. This is where the narrator will start his journey trying to learn about the mysterious life of Ethan Frome. After asking a few of the locals about hi and getting nothing the narrator finally get some details on Ethan’s “smash-up.” And he learns this because a storm causes the narrator to have to stay at the Frome house hold. We than learn about Ethan’s smash-up when he goes to pick up his wife’s cousin but then sees her and becomes infatuated with her. He decides to stay a little hidden when the dance lets out, and watches the cousin. When he picks her up to take her home there is a tension between the two, but when they get home it gets broken by the wife. The next morning after Ethan was chopping wood he comes home to see his wife leaving to go get treatment in the town next to theirs, causing her to be gone for a night and he was happy to have a night alone with the cousin. That night Ethan almost comes out with his affection for the cousin but holds it in and they go to bed without even touching each other. The next morning one of the hired workers keeps him from admitting his affection, and he has to go to town. When he gets back his wife is home. His wife decides to hire somebody other than her cousin and he secretly is mad about it. While in the kitchen he can’t hold it back, and he kisses the cousin. Ethan that evening thinks about leaving his wife for the other girl, and even writes a letter but then decided it was best to not do so. Breakfast that next morning the wife talks about her cousin leaving and the new hired girl. After Ethan finishes his work at the farm on midday he goes and tries to get the money to go have sex with the girl, but then he gets reminded by Hale’s wife about how dedicated he has been to his wife. Against his wife’s wishes he takes the girl to the train station himself, but instead of going to the train station they go to a hill outside the village where he planned on making his move. When he tries she comes out with an idea if them sledding into a tree so that they could spend there last moments together. At first he was against it, but then he decided to do it. Well they both live and he slowly wakes up and sees her there and she weakly utters his name. now we fast forward twenty years later and our narrator takes note of two old ladies in the house taking care of an old man (the three characters of the story just told). He then heads back to town, and talks to some of the women there about the household and how sad all of it are.
The main character and protagonist of the story is Ethan Frome He is a farmer in Massachusetts. His whole family lived there for generations. Ethan Frome has an appreciation for nature . The book centers on his actions. He is still considered a protagonist even though he considers an adulterous affair with another woman. Zenobia Fromeis Ethan’s wife referred to as Zeena she described as un attractive and sickly. She is generally unlikable driving Ethan to consider an affair. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin, she is young and attractive. She becomes an object of desire to Ethan. She remains largely static as Mattie is only describing through Ethan’s biased point of view. The narrator of the story recounts the stories events but has no effect on the story at large. Also as a stranger to all the characters the Narrator has a largely unbiased view allowing his descriptions to make for more dynamic characters.
Ethan from takes place in the fictional small town of Stark field, Massachusetts between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s . The story itself runs its course over a period of 25 years not only providing insight into the lives and drama of people in that time but also describing life in the most influential and industrial periods in America, the Age of American steel, and The current wars. As well as a turbulent change in women’s rights. Granted these things are really present in the novel but they coincide with the time period it was written in. It is also set in the winter which means that its going to have some depressing times. There is tragedy in the town of stark field “I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters. (Prologue.29)” Winter is attributed to the reason Ethan frome married Zeena. “After the funeral, when he saw [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm; and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter...(4.6)”
Man Vs Man
This conflict can be seen as Ethans conflict with Zeena and the affair he wants to commit to
Man Vs. Self
Ethan has to deal with the internal conflict of an affair
Man vs. Nature
His own biology is betraying him dealing with primal instinct and attraction.
Man vs tech
He lives in the turn of the century and the world is change around him.
Themes
Dreams and Hopes, It is established in the beginning of the book that Starkfield is the land of broken dreams . The idea that things could change is how the characters carry on.
Love
The characters are in a bitter love triangle. Driving the stories main conflict.
Technology
He lives in the turn of the century and the world is hitting a new modern age, things will never be the same… Except for Stark field which remains largely static.
Symbols
The red scarf and ribbon
Red symbolizes good health and vitality, the author emphasizes the red that Mattie wears to help convey her attractiveness and vitality.
The pickle dish and the cat
The broken dish and the cat symbolizes Zeena’s invisible presence in the house even when Ethan and Mattie are alone.
The sled run
This symbolizes fate, not being able to effectively control the sled and having a death wish represents the bad decisions he made.
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h6Yn3Gv0PI
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Ethan Frome.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 14 Mar. 2013
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ethan Frome Themes" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ethan Frome Setting" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
IMAGE
http://www.chicagostagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ethan-frome-layout_web.jpg
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Ethan Frome.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.
The main character and protagonist of the story is Ethan Frome He is a farmer in Massachusetts. His whole family lived there for generations. Ethan Frome has an appreciation for nature . The book centers on his actions. He is still considered a protagonist even though he considers an adulterous affair with another woman. Zenobia Fromeis Ethan’s wife referred to as Zeena she described as un attractive and sickly. She is generally unlikable driving Ethan to consider an affair. Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin, she is young and attractive. She becomes an object of desire to Ethan. She remains largely static as Mattie is only describing through Ethan’s biased point of view. The narrator of the story recounts the stories events but has no effect on the story at large. Also as a stranger to all the characters the Narrator has a largely unbiased view allowing his descriptions to make for more dynamic characters.
Ethan from takes place in the fictional small town of Stark field, Massachusetts between the late 1800’s and early 1900’s . The story itself runs its course over a period of 25 years not only providing insight into the lives and drama of people in that time but also describing life in the most influential and industrial periods in America, the Age of American steel, and The current wars. As well as a turbulent change in women’s rights. Granted these things are really present in the novel but they coincide with the time period it was written in. It is also set in the winter which means that its going to have some depressing times. There is tragedy in the town of stark field “I simply felt that he lived in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access, and I had the sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it, as Harmon Gow had hinted, the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters. (Prologue.29)” Winter is attributed to the reason Ethan frome married Zeena. “After the funeral, when he saw [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm; and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him. He had often thought since that it would not have happened if his mother had died in spring instead of winter...(4.6)”
Man Vs Man
This conflict can be seen as Ethans conflict with Zeena and the affair he wants to commit to
Man Vs. Self
Ethan has to deal with the internal conflict of an affair
Man vs. Nature
His own biology is betraying him dealing with primal instinct and attraction.
Man vs tech
He lives in the turn of the century and the world is change around him.
Themes
Dreams and Hopes, It is established in the beginning of the book that Starkfield is the land of broken dreams . The idea that things could change is how the characters carry on.
Love
The characters are in a bitter love triangle. Driving the stories main conflict.
Technology
He lives in the turn of the century and the world is hitting a new modern age, things will never be the same… Except for Stark field which remains largely static.
Symbols
The red scarf and ribbon
Red symbolizes good health and vitality, the author emphasizes the red that Mattie wears to help convey her attractiveness and vitality.
The pickle dish and the cat
The broken dish and the cat symbolizes Zeena’s invisible presence in the house even when Ethan and Mattie are alone.
The sled run
This symbolizes fate, not being able to effectively control the sled and having a death wish represents the bad decisions he made.
Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h6Yn3Gv0PI
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Ethan Frome.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 14 Mar. 2013
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ethan Frome Themes" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Ethan Frome Setting" Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 2 Apr. 2013.
IMAGE
http://www.chicagostagereview.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ethan-frome-layout_web.jpg
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Ethan Frome.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2003. Web. 14 Mar. 2013.