Ethan Frome: An Examination Of The Human Mind.

Her greatest attribute is her ability to interpret the characters actions in a way that relates to all of humankind. Each word and phrase appears to be chosen so that it reflects a part of the subconscious within the characters. Therefore, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome is a psychological examination of the human mind, based upon her use of setting to reflect emotion, and characterization to show human tendencies towards chaos and other psychological aspects of the human psyche.

In Ethan Frome, Wharton uses setting to show the sentiments and psychology of

the characters. Since the tone of the novel is somber and the characters suffer greatly, Wharton applies a technique of matching the scenery to the characters emotions. The principal setting of the novel is the imaginary Starkfield, a small farming based community, where the houses are mostly several miles from the “center” of town. Instantly, the mere name of the town gives readers the initial impression of the hopeless mindset of the characters while alluding to a fundamental nature of utter desolation. Thus, it could be said of the common New England winter that the physical landscape can reinforce tensions oppressing the people in the community. The stage driver, 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” (11). During the entirety of the novel, the Starkfield weather is brutally cold and snowy. The snow and cold restate the cruelty of the characters’ situations. The setting, using the bleakness of winter, provides a complicated time scheme through which Wharton dramatically contrasts the bleak existence of her characters in the present with their youthful expectations in the past.

This absence of a “sharp line” was shown with the usage of an intermediate gray tone, which is recurring throughout the novel. There was no right or wrong in his case, hence the blend of the two colors, black and white, into gray. Wharton also uses physical objects to represent characters from the novel, such as “blighted apple trees,” which have bent from the weight of snow. Ethan is symbolically the apple tree because of his physical deformities as well as the mental burdens he has faced during his life. As seen, Ethan talks in the novel about removing the “L” shaped projection from off of his house. “I had to take down the L a while back” (22). The action of Ethan removing part of his house parallels his feelings of loss for his family and Mattie. In short, it signifies his misery.

The winter scenery provides testament to things gone wrong, nearly a romantic styled commiseration of nature. The color scheme used to describe the setting mirrored the desolation of the character’s

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