Ethan Frome: a novel of isolation and tragedy

Passion and Constraint in Ethan Frome

Passion and constraint are the primary motivators in a tragic love story, accentuating the lust for the forbidden, the futility in achieving that which is desired, and the tragedy of the outcome. Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, is a tragic love story that incorporates the theme of passion and constraint, drawing the reader in as an accountable subject. The title character in Ethan Frome is the delineating figure by which his ailing wife Zenobia (Zeena) and her youthful cousin Mattie demonstrate the effects of isolation, the contradiction of youth and old age, and the consequences of desire for the purpose of influencing the reader to condone Ethan's longing to have an affair with Mattie, and thus be subject to the guilt of the tragic outcome.

Both Zeena and Mattie suffer from isolation throughout the story. Zeena's isolation is self-induced as she suffers from imagined or exaggerated illness, while Mattie longs to escape, even briefly to the evening dances. The free-spiritedness Ethan sees in Mattie attracts him to her and begins the reader's opinion that Ethan, who is desperate for "friendly human intercourse" (28) is suffering with Zeena. However, the disability Mattie suffers at the end of the story and the poverty she endures precludes her escape from the Frome household and cements her isolation, alongside Zeena. The physical contrasts, and later, similarities, demonstrate the transition of Ethan's passion developing, being unrestrained, and suffering the consequences.

Beauty and youth contrast the dull portrayal of age and illness in Ethan Frome. The harsh white landscape of winter in Starkfield and the "outcroppings of slate" (7) depicting the state of rigid oppressiveness is symbolic of the bleakness of Zeena's spirit and the burden she places on Ethan as an invalid and unappealing wife. Wharton refrains from giving Zeena any positive attributes to accentuate the contrasting free spirit and passionate force of Mattie, who is described with a youthful attractiveness. Her presence in the Frome household was "like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth" (14), warming Ethan's spirit in a way that Zeena could not. Mattie's "cherry-coloured scarf" and the red ribbon she wears in her hair (12) are symbolic of health and vitality, but also personalize her as a temptress, with her "panting lips" (13) stirring Ethan to fantasize about her. The reader is thus drawn to conclude that it is only natural for Ethan to want Mattie as opposed to his own wife, and cheer for the immoral development of a relationship between them. But when constraint falters to passion, consequences of desire occur.

The tragedy of the coasting accident marks the ironic exchange of Mattie and Zeena's roles and attitudes. When the narrator meets Mattie and Zeena, he finds Mattie to have hair "as grey as her companion's, her face as bloodless and shriveled," speaking "complainingly, in a high thin voice" (74) as previously described for Zeena. Where Zeena had been the invalid, helpless and droning, Mattie, in her paralyzed state, requires the care and becomes the lifeless burden with Zeena taking care of her. As famed literary critic Lionel Trilling notes, through this ironic trade of persona, the "perpetuity of suffering memorializes a moment of passion" (128), reiterated in Mrs. Hale's words, "I don't see's there's much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard" (77). The tragedy likewise draws the reader's implied guilt, realizing the consequences of immoral desires.