Essay on Whartons Ethan Frome: A Psychological Novel -- Ethan Frome E

Ethan Frome as A mental Novel Many authors have tried to convey truths about adult male behavior and explain the human psyche, often unsuccessfully. Edith Whartons tonic, Ethan Frome, is an example of a novel that succeeds in revealing truths. She fills her characters with nuances that reflect the subconscious and her coiffeting is alive with reflected symbolism. She is fit to interpret the characters actions in a way that can relate to on the whole humans. Each word and phrase seems to be chosen so that it reflects a part of the subconscious in the characters. Edith Whartons Ethan Frome is an examination of the human mind, based on her use of setting to reflect emotion, characterization to show human tendencies towards sanatorium and other psychological aspects of the human mind. In Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the setting to show the feelings and psychological science of the characters. Because the tone of the novel is somber and the characters suffer greatly, Wharton used th e gothic proficiency of matching the scenery to the characters emotions. The principal setting of the novel is Starkfield, which is a blue farming based community. The houses are mostly several miles from the center of town. Richard Worth, a literary critic, says of Starkville, ...even the name suggests utter desolation (64). The name of the town gives the initial impression of the mindset of the characters hopelessness. The bracing England winter... the physical landscape can strengthen psychic tensions oppressing the people in the community (McDowell 85). The narrator, Harmon Gow, describes the setting and says, ...the winter set down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow, perpetually renewed from the pale skies(7). During the entirety of the... ...me is a timeless classical that subtly and creatively lets readers understand the hidden depths of the human mind finished psychological aspects present in the novel. Bibliography Bell, Millicent. The Cambrid ge Companion to Edith Wharton. bracing York Cambridge .....University Press, 1995. Fedorko, Kathy. Gender and the gothic in the Fiction of Edith Wharton. Tuscaloosa .....University of Alabama Press, 1995. Goodwyn, Janet Patricia. Edith Wharton Traveler in the Land of Letters. New York .....St. Martins Press, 1990. McDowell, Margaret. Edith Wharton Revised Edition. Boston G.K. Hall and .....Company, 1991 Springer, Marlene. Ethan Frome A Nightmare of Need. New York Twayne .....Publishers, 1993. Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York Penguin Group, 1993. Worth, Richard. Edith Wharton. New York Simon and Schuster, 1994.