Imagery Of Ethan Frome Essay, Research Paper
Edith Wharton uses imagery in the novel Ethan Frome. Her
use of imagery enhances the theme and reading experience of the
novel. Her use of imagery vividly compares and contrasts Mattie
and Zeena, the two women in Ethan’s life.
Mattie Silver is Zeena’s cousin who comes to live with the
Fromes. Mattie is the equivalent of modern-day maid, because she
cooks and maintains the Frome household. Wharton describes
Mattie as being a lively and happy young woman, before her
suicide attempt that leaves her an invalid and a former shadow of
herself. Her name alone, Mattie Silver, symbolizes the
glistening and beauty of a piece of sterling silver. Mattie’s
beauty attracts Ethan to her. “…Zeena was to be away for a
night. He wondered if the girl were thinking of it too” (Wharton
47). Compared to Zeena, Mattie was the embodiment of life: she
was radiant and energetic. “The pure air, and the long summer
hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie” (Wharton
60). When Mattie first arrives in Starkfield, her presence is
perceived as, “… a bit of hopeful young life, like the lighting
of a fire on a cold hearth” (33).
However, Zeena, Ethan’s wife of seven years, she the exact
opposite of Mattie’s beauty and radiance. Death is personified
in the form of Zeena Frome, a hypochondriac who speaks only to
complain. “Zeena has always been what Starkfield called
’sickly’” (Wharton 25). Needless to say, Zeena’s appearance and
daily habits are very unattractive, when compared to Mattie.
“Then he [Ethan] had a distinct sight of his wife lying in their
bedroom asleep, her mouth slightly open, her false teeth in a
tumbler by the bed” (Wharton 37). “The room was almost dark, but
in the obscurity he saw her sitting by a window, and knew by the
rigidity of the outline projected against the pane that she had
not taken off her traveling dress” (Wharton 77). This quote
conjures up an image of a skeleton. “The rigidity of the
outline” symbolizes the rigid property of a skeleton sitting next
to a window, illuminated only by the moonlight which
of the rigid bones, bones that are visible after a human body has
died and completely decomposed. Zeena is described as wintry and
unappealing: “She [Zeena] sat opposite the window, and the pale
light reflected from the banks of snow made her face look more
than usually drawn and bloodless, sharpened the three parallel
creases between ear and cheek, and drew querulous lines from her
thin nose to the corners of her mouth” (64). Again, an image of
skeleton is drawn in words by Wharton. The pervasiveness of the
winter imagery evokes in the reader a sense of the bitter
solitude, silence, desolation, and despair ultimately felt by
each of the three main characters.
Starkfield fits Zeena’s character and the novel perfectly.
Stark, itself, means dreary, grim or harsh. So, in essence,
Starkfield can actually be called a grim field, which is the
ideal hometown for an individual like Zeena, who was depicted as
cold and self-centered. Later in the book, this also becomes and
ideal place for Mattie and Ethan, after they survive their
suicide attempt which permanently cripples both of them, although
it affected Mattie more severely. Their injuries give Ethan and
Mattie the appearance of death, because both of them appear to
become cold and bitter.
The story of poor Ethan Frome, chained to his
tyrannically “invalid” wife, Zeena, on a miserable New
England Farm, unable to escape with his true love,
Mattie Silver, except in a bungled effort at double
suicide that leaves them both horribly crippled for
life, has long been an American classic. In its spare,
chilling re-creation of rural isolation, hardscrabble
poverty, and wintry landscape–forces that enclose and
doom the already pitiful lovers… (Kazin 131).
In summary, Edith Wharton’s use of imagery, especially the vivid
descriptions of Mattie and Zeena, enhance the overall impact made
on the reader’s mind. Her use of imagery was not limited to
Mattie and Zeena, as it was also used to describe Ethan, before
and after the suicide attempt, and what Starkfield, New England
was like.