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Ethan Frome, the main character in the book entitled Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton,
has many
complex problems going on at the same time. His family has died and he has a wife that is
continually sick, and the only form of happiness he has is from his wife's cousin Mattie.
This,
however, at times proves to be hard because of Ethan's wifes interference. Nothing seems
to be going in Ethan's favor. The main theme of the book is failure, and this is shown
through marrying his wife, not being able to stand up to his wife, and his involvement
concerning the "smash up." The first way failure is shown in the book is through the
marriage of Ethan and his wife. He married her because she had tried to help his mother
recover from an illness, and once his mother died he could not bear the thought of living
in the house alone. His wife was seven years his senior and always seemed to have some
kind of illness. It seemed all she ever did was complain, and he
resented this because it stifled his growing soul. Since his wife was continuously ill,
and her cousin needed a place to stay, they took her in to help around the house. Ethan
took an immediate propensity to her cousin, Mattie, because she brought a bright light
upon his dismal day. He seemed to have found someone that cared for him, was always happy
and could share his youth, unlike his sickly wife who always nagged him. He longed to be
with Mattie, however he had
loyalty to his wife. Being married to the wrong person proved to be Ethan's first
failure. Ethan's second failure was not being able to stand up against his wife. His
wife claimed that a new doctor said that she was extremely sick, and needed more help
around the house. She told him without any discussion that Mattie had to go. Ethan could
not find the words to make her alter her decision. His wife also decided that Mattie had
to leave the next day itself and Ethan could not do
anything about it. It was stated in the book that his wife had the upper hand in the
house by the
line "Now she [his wife] had mastered him [Ethan] and he obeyed her." Ethan just could
not find the right things to say and it was because of his failure of not being able to
stand up to his wife, he was going to lose the only thing that made him happy. Ethan's
last failure was the way he modified his and Mattie's lives regarding the "smash up." He
so desperately wanted to run away with Mattie, but he could not because his practical
sense told him
it was not feasible to do so. Mattie wanted so desperately to be with Ethan, that she
suggested in order to stay together forever, was to die together. It was Ethan's job to
steer into the tree with the sled so that it looked like an accidental death instead of
suicide. Instead of running square into the tree, he did not hit the tree right and it
did not kill either of them. Instead it just injured them ,
and these injuries stayed with them forever. In this way Ethan had his last failure in
not exceeding
to die with his love, instead he had to live with the guilt from his wife, the injured
Mattie, and
broken dreams. In these three ways, of marrying the wrong person, not being able to
stand up to his wife, and
incidents that come from the smash up, proves that the main theme of the book is failure.
It seemed that everything Ethan tried to do, worked against his favor. With all the
incidents that
happened it seemed inevitable that his life would always be a string of failure.
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