Monday, March 22, 2010
Guest Blogger: Aymen M.
Continuing on with our current topic of Gothic Romance and Verisimilitude, we have moved onto a new novel—”Ethan Frome.” Despite being only three chapters into the novel, one aspect I found quite interesting was how Wharton uses the season of winter to reveal the personality of Starkfield. Wharton describes Starkfield's climate having radiant blue skies and eye-catching snow, creating a pleasant winter wonderland of a town. However, this is not entirely so, because Wharton contrasts the seemingly pleasant climate of Starkfield with “the deadness of the community” of Starkfield. Instead of making the community and it’s residents lively, the atmosphere appears to emphasize “the sluggish pulse of Starkfield.” Introduced in the prologue of the novel, it seems as if the force of nature is at war with Starkfield during the winter, forcing the community of Starkfield to surrender without any hope to oppose it. This is definitely true because of Wharton's use of some military-like metaphors that caught my eye; “the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support.” Also, the imagery in “Ethan Frome” creates an impression that it is built around the coldness of winter. Characters in the novel constantly complain about the cold which appears to add to the community's “deadness.” For instance, Ethan Frome himself is described for having “been in Starkfield too many winters,” so it makes sense that winter is at fault—or at least partly—for Ethan's bland and seemingly inert attitude so far in the novel. Ethan's personal life appears to be greatly affected by winter as well. Even though he is married to Zeena, his wife, Ethan's marriage with her looks as if he just married her so he does not have to bear the recurring burden of winter year after year. So, in a sense, Ethan and Zeena's marriage is essentially buried under a pile of snow that cannot be brought up, because he is not at all attracted to her. My analysis is based on the prologue and the first three chapters of the novel, so I do not know entirely why winter is so significant, but based on what is happening so far, I would think that winter is symbolic and is a major part of the theme of “Ethan Frome.”
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7 comments:
~Tania
The nature as whole is a symbolic part of the theme of Ethan Frome. The nature itself seems to add to the isolation of the small town and of his marriage. His marriage could be described as cold! Ethan does seem to be trapped in his marriage to zeena. I do agree with the “deadness” of the town, it reminds me of where I live. I live in a little town of 800 people. It is every quiet and calm. You get used to seeing the same people over and over again. There isn’t much to do around here and you’ll find empty old parks and no one around you if you were to walk around this town. Starkfield reminds me of home, where one can feel trapped all winter long. I have lived here almost all my life and I guess I can say “I’ve been in West concord too many winters” a swell.
Senia Lee
I too think that the role of winter is placed to describe the personality of Starkfield. Winter it the time were everything dies, the grass, leaves, and fruits on the tree that appear to be shriveled up, yet it can be the time of year where everything is crystallized, sparkley and memorable, but I am uncertain if that's what is supposed to be portrayed. I wonder why the people there seem to stay there if everything is dead-like and that you said that the characters are constantly complaining "about the cold which appears to add the community's deadness". I think this could be to 'pop' the character of Ethan Frome from the rest. On page 3 of my text, it said that he was unique out of the group.
I found those small references to war really interesting as this novel's main theme seems to about isolation. Using winter and the fact that Starkfield is really in the middle of nowhere, I feel the author is able to paint the image of loneliness far better. But the images of war seems to contrast severely with the rest of the story no matter how minute the details are.
This story I can't really say if it's a verisimilitude or a romance. From Ethan Frome's point of view it is definitely a verisimilitude. From the narrators perspective however we get added romantic elements like the sentence "despair seized him at the thought of her setting out alone to renew the weary quest for work." This is a very romantic line and there are many more examples like this throughout the text. I think that this novel is similar to turn of the screw because it is a verisimilitude story again in which the narrator try's to add romantic elements. In the last one she viewed herself as in a love story and being a hero. In this case the narrator views Ethan as a person with simple speech but who apparently has a very adept mind. This once again is because of point of view which is important to take into account in both novels.
Brian Reuland:
I found the nature references in Ethan Frome very interesting because of how they parallel the character of Ethan Frome. He is bare, blank, loney and cold. I think it's interesting that Tanis mentioned how the description reminded her of here in Minnesota. I must admit to thinking the same thing. We are certainly somewhat isolated during our long winters, for the sheer fact that no one wants to be outside of traveling when is below zero and snowing. What I found was that I could sympathize with Ethan Frome because of how I can relate to his frustration with winter.
I too found the nature references very prominent in this novel. In the prologue, the author ties war into the nature as well when she refers to Starkfield emerging from its six month siege. War and winter both seem very isolating to me and this novel revolves around isolation. Without Ethan's isolation, I don't think the plot of the novel would work. The weather forces the town to be isolated, which only adds to Ethan's personal isolation.
Thanks Aymen. Funny final line, Tania!
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