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

Ethan Frome as A Psychological Novel Many authors have tried to convey truths about tenders behavior and explain the human psyche, often unsuccessfully. Edith Whartons novel, 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 setting is alive with reflected symbolism. She is able to interpret the characters actions in a counsel that can relate to all 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 place human tendencies towards chaos and other psychological aspects of the human mind. In Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the setting to show the feelings and psychology of the characters. Because the tone of the novel is somber and the characters suffer greatly, Wharton used the gothic technique o f matching the scenery to the characters emotions. The principal setting of the novel is Starkfield, which is a nice 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 pictorial matter of the mindset of the characters hopelessness. The New England winter... the physical landscape can reinforce 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 classic that subtly and creatively lets readers ascertain the hidden depths of the human mind through psychological aspects present in the novel. Bibliography Bell, Millicent. The Cambridge Companion to Edith Wharto n. New 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 traveller 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.