Ethan Frome Work

Ethan Frome is set in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts. The bulk of the story's action happens over just four days in February. So the novella is set in a terrible winter and these four days are the culmination of a year of attraction between Ethan and Mattie, and also of a tragedy. Before the end of the chapter 2, our passage to study, young Ethan Frome walks through the deep snow to the church where a dance is being held. His father's accidental death forced him to drop out of school and return to Starkfield to take over the Frome farm. When he was outside the church, he sees Mattie Silver, his wife's younger cousin, dancing with Denis Eady, the son of Michael Eady, a wealthy shopkeeper. And we learn that Since Ethan is only happy when he is with Mattie, he's confused by Mattie's high spirits, and worries that she may be in love with Denis and although Mattie has given no indication that she is interested in Denis, the sight of them dancing together arouses Ethan's fears, as he realizes that he can no longer live without her. Outside the church, Ethan joins Mattie and finds out for sure whether Mattie has feelings for Denis. In the end of the chapter 2, Edith Wharton by the voice of her narrator, wants to show us two themes usually distincts but perfectly linked to the main character Ethan Frome. That's why our matter today about this extract is to know how does the narrator describe us the state of mind of Ethan Frome, at this moment of the novella ? So

in the first part, we are going to study the desolation and isolation way of the passage, then we are going to show the romantic dimension.

From the beginning of the passage, we can see lots of personnal pronouns which implicate an omniscient point of vieuw, more exactly a limited omniscient because we have got only thoughts or feelings from Ethan. Indeed the narrator does not ponder what Zeena or Mattie think or feel, but only how they might have appeared to the main character in the past. The first part is mainly devoted to the the desolation and isolation theme with a very precise description of the scene, when the narrator describes the walk home from the dance of Ethan Frome and Mattie where they cross the Frome graveyard. During that, the narrator tries to make us understand what exactly the main character thinks. He says « ethan looked at them curiously » as if the grave-stones have some influence on him. Actually we can understand this sentence as the gravestones seem to speak to Ethan. Taunting him they seem to say, if they couldn't escape Starkfield, how could Ethan?The dead Frome relatives in the graveyard seem to call out to Ethan that he cannot escape the same fate: never to leave the bleak, miserable world of Starkfield. Ethan fears that he will end up like his dead relatives in the private graveyard, remaining in Starkfield, isolated from the rest of the community even in death. Because during the novella we learn that Ethan wanted to leave the frictionnal place but had an accident which prevented him to do that.Like a come back from the past the narrator uses the words « for years »« for years that quiet company had mocked his restlessness, his desire for change and freedom. »After that, Ethan has the sudden thought that he will be stuck in Starkfield until he dies with the sentence « I shall just go on living there till I join them. » But this thought is stronger with the word « shiver » which describes the way he feels. In the second paragraphe we can see the same frightened of staying there with the addition of Mattie's case. He feels that all the dead Frome ancestors who failed to get away and were buried on the farm will conspire with him to keep Mattie there. It is a sinister image when applied to the lively Mattie, suggesting that the repression and death that marks Ethan's life will overtake her and imprison her.

In spite of this extract is