Ethan And Mattie example essay topic

PROLOGUE One thing that sets Ethan Frome apart from other novels is the way the story is told. Edith Wharton doesn't just start at the beginning and tell you what happens. Rather, she uses a narrator who knows no more about Ethan Frome than you do. The narrator, who remains nameless, is a young engineer. He tells you how he uncovered Ethan's story bit by bit.

He recounts what people said to him and what he observed during the months he spent in Ethan's hometown one winter long ago. This opening chapter is a prologue to the main story. It introduces the narrator, describes the town and surrounding countryside, describes some townspeople, and starts to build some of the novel's major themes. But most of all, it stirs your curiosity about Ethan Frome. The narrator you directly by saying 'If your now Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post office. ' The post office is where he first laid saw Ethan.

Every day at noon Ethan parked his buggy at the curb and picked up mail at the post office window. He rarely got anything except the local newspaper and an occasional package of patent medicine addressed to his wife, Zeena Frome. Ethan seldom talked to anybody. When someone addressed him, he answered quietly with as few words as possible before mounting his buggy and driving slowly back to his farm. He appears to be a cheerless, broken man. Ethan catches the narrator's eye because his looks are striking.

Tall and powerful, Ethan must have been a strong man at one time. But now he hobbles when he walks, his shoulders sag, and he has a red gash, the scar of an old wound, across his forehead. To the narrator, Ethan looks as though he 'was dead and in heel'. Yet he is only fifty-two years old.

Harmon Gow, Starkfield's stage driver, explains Ethan's run-down appearance and his age. It was the 'smash-up,' he says, an event that occurred twenty-four years ago. It was a terrible smashup, Gow recalls, and it should have killed him. But, he adds, the Fromes are tough, and Ethan will probably live to be one hundred. The narrator, it turns out, has spent a whole winter in Starkfield.

An engineer for a power company, he had been sent to do a job in nearby Corbury Junction. A strike delayed the work, so he had plenty of time to get to know the area. Winter, he tells us, 'shut down on Starkfield. ' For close to six months the town sags under the weight of snow. A little later, the narrator's life converges with Ethan's. Their encounter gives us a chance to learn the whole story behind his unusual behavior and appearance.

First you " re told how the two men made contact. The narrator works at a powerhouse in a place called the Junction, a ten-mile commute from Starkfield. Each day he takes a buggy or sleigh provided by Denis Eady, the owner of the town's livery stable. He is dropped off in Corbury Flats, three miles away, where he catches a train to the Junction. One day in midwinter, Eady's horses 'fell ill of a local epidemic. ' Harmon Gow advises the narrator that Ethan Frome's horse was still healthy, and for a dollar Ethan might be persuaded to drive over to the Flats each morning and back again in the afternoon.

The narrator expresses wonder that Ethan needs money so badly. 'Well, matters ain't gone any too well with him,' replies Gow. For the last twenty years, he continues, Ethan's had problems making ends meet on his farm. Although it's always been tough for Ethan, things had gotten even worse. His father got kicked in the head by a horse, went soft in the brain, and gave away most of his money before he died. Then Ethan's mother took sick with a disease that took years to kill her.

And now Zeena Frome, Ethan's wife, is sickly, too. 'Sickness and trouble: that's what Ethan's had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping,' says Gow. Every day for a week after that, Ethan carries the narrator back and forth to Corbury Flats. Ethan doesn't say much, answering questions in monosyllables. He hardly even looks at his passenger. To the narrator, Ethan is like a piece of the 'mute, melancholy' winter landscape, a piece of 'frozen woe.

' Only twice during many trips to and from work does Ethan emerge from his shell. Once he reveals that long ago he had briefly been in Florida, but the memory of it is now 'all snowed under. ' Another time the narrator misplaces a popular science book on bio-chemistry. Later he sees the book in Ethan's hand.

Ethan says bitterly that the book contains things 'that I didn't know the first word about' CHAPTER Suddenly you " re swept back at least a generation to the time when Ethan Frome is a young man. You see him walking rapidly through the empty streets of Starkfield. It's a clear night and as usual in the novel, it is wintertime. Places and names you already know from the opening chapter are mentioned again.

Ethan walks past Michael Eady's new brick store. (He must be related to Denis Eady, whose horses will someday take the narrator to work. You " ll find out.) Then there's Lawyer Varnum's house. (He's the father of Ruth Varnum.

You know that years from now Ruth will be Ned Hale's widow, and the narrator will be renting a room from her in this very house.) Ethan had attended a technological college in Worcester, but because his father was killed he dropped out after a year. Ever since, images of what he had learned come to him unexpectedly. You are told that Ethan has a fanciful mind that seeks deep meanings in ordinary events. Evidently Ethan doesn't want to be seen outside the church. He avoids the rays of light shining on the snow and hugs the shadows until he finds the window he wants. Inside the building it looks like the end of a cheerful, noisy evening of music and dancing.

Suddenly a young man rounds up the crowd for the last dance, a lively Virginia reel. In the darkness Ethan's heart is beating fast, as though he himself is one of the dancers. However, his pulse quickens not from the dance but from the anticipation of a particular girl with a cherry-red scarf on her head. He spies her dancing with Denis Eady. She's enjoying herself. In fact, she's having too good a time to Ethan, who studies her closely.

That she finds pleasure dancing with that Denis Eady, bothers Ethan. The girl is Mattie Silver, a cousin of Ethan's wife, Zeena. For the past twelve months Mattie, who is about twenty-one years old, has been living with the Fromes, earning her keep by doing housework and aiding Zeena, who is in poor health. The moment Mattie stepped from the train Ethan fell for her. To him she was 'like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth. ' She brought laughter into the house.

Most of all, she enabled Ethan to show off his knowledge of natural phenomena. He pointed out the constellations and lectured her on rock formations. Ethan and Mattie drew closer to each other because they liked sunsets, clouds, and the sights they saw together in the fields and woods. Throughout their marriage Ethan and Zeena have hardly talked to each other.

Zeena spends most of her time alone, tending to her ailments. When she speaks it's usually to complain or scold. She is dissatisfied with Mattie's work around the house and grumbles about the girl's inefficiency. Zeena has a point, for Mattie isn't good at housekeeping.

Now and then Ethan stops his own work in order to help Mattie with hers. One day Zeena discovered Ethan churning butter (Mattie's task) and turned away in silence after giving him 'one of her queer looks. ' Did that look show that Zeena knows his private thoughts about Mattie? Ethan thinks she does.

On the other hand, perhaps he's just feeling guilty. he recalls one conversation in particular. One morning dressed and shaved, Zeena informed him that she'd spoken to her doctor, who told her never to be without help in the house. What will she do, she asks Ethan, after Mattie leaves. They can't afford to hire another girl. 'Why on earth should Mattie go?' asks Ethan. 'Well, when she gets married, I mean.

' Ethan, noticeably flustered by Zeena's talk about Mattie's leaving, can't continue to discuss it. 'I haven't got the time now; I'm late as it is,' he says. She replies sharply, 'I guess you " re always late, now that you shave every morning. ' That comment frightens Ethan more than any other because it is a fact that he started shaving daily only since Mattie moved into the house. He thought that Zeena didn't notice such things about him. Does Zeena know his private thoughts?

He suspects that she does. But if he thought it over, he'd probably realize that he needn't worry over his suspicion, for Zeena is caught up in her own woes and lacks the vision to see beyond them. The two mile walks that he and Mattie have been taking from the village to the farm have become precious to him. Those night walks have brought him and Mattie together. With her arm in his, they have gazed at the stars and reveled in the beauty of nature. The passion he has for Mattie, however, is ruined by feelings of uncertainty.

Although she acts as though she's fond of Ethan, she appears to act the same way with Denis Eady as they dance together on the other side of the window. Every time she smiles at Denis, Ethan grows less sure of himself. He wonders how his dull talk could ever interest her. CHAPTER II Poor Ethan! Without any self-confidence he stays hidden in the shadows as the dancers come out of the hall. Instead of coming forward, offering Mattie his arm and heading toward home, he waits behind the door to see what Mattie will do.

Ethan hasn't felt this shy in a long time. Mattie's manner has rubbed off on him a little bit, but tonight he feels 'heavy and loutish' again. Outside the church Mattie looks around, but still Ethan hangs back. A man approaches her.

It's Denis Eady. He offers to take Mattie home in his father's sled. She needs a little coaxing, so Denis jokes with her, telling her that he 'kinder knew " she'd want to take a ride tonight. He brings out the sled and turns back the bearskin blanket to make room for Mattie. Watching the scene, Ethan waits in agony, as though his life depended on what Mattie decides.

Will she get in, or won't she? Mattie declines Denis' invitation and starts to walk away. Denis thinks she's just playing hard to get and urges her to climb aboard, but again she says no. Denis jumps from the sled and takes her arm, but she gets away from him. Finally, he gives up and drives away. Ethan goes after Mattie and catches up with her.

She is glad to see him, but he is almost bursting with joy that she turned Denis away. Also, he's impressed at how clever he's been to spy on her. Nearing the house Mattie and Ethan pass through the Frome family graveyard. For years the sight of the headstones has reminded Ethan that like his ancestors he was doomed to live and die right here on his Starkfield farm.

On this night his urge to flee the farm has vanished. He thinks that staying here with Mattie is all he'd ever want, and when they die, they " ll lie together in this cemetery. When Mattie stumbles, he steadies her and slips his arm around her. She doesn't resist.

Triumphantly they walk across the frozen snow 'as if they were floating on a summer stream. ' Suddenly the thought of Zeena comes. In his mind's eye Ethan sees Zeena 'Lying in their bedroom asleep, her mouth slightly open, her false teeth in a tumbler by the bed... ' From bliss to bitterness in an instant.

Standing outside the door, Ethan tries one more time to tell Mattie what he feels. 'Matt-' he says. And that's all. Ethan thinks that as usual Zeena has probably been in bed since just after supper. The door key will be under the mat.

But Ethan can't find it. A wild thought tears through him: Some tramps have been seen in the neighborhood. What if they... He never finishes the thought, but I can finish it for him. Remember that cucumber vine on the front porch? Ethan has though.