Ethan Wharton Summary

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* Wharton- 1862-1937. Author of more than 40 volumes. Born during the civil war. Recipient of the French Legion of Honor for her philanthropic work during World War I and of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence (1920), in 1923 she became the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from Yale. In 1885, when she was twenty-three, she married Edward ("Teddy") Wharton. Wharton eventually settled permanently in France, thereafter visiting the United States only rarely. In Paris in 1908 she began a briefly fulfilling but ultimately disappointing affair with Morton Fullerton, a journalist on the London Times and a friend of Henry James. Considered one of the major American novelists and short story writers of the 20th century,…show more content…
She tells Ethan that she is going to see a new doctor. * Ethan wants a night alone with Mattie so he agrees even though he can’t afford it. He gets someone who works for him to drive her and tells her that he needs to collect money from someone else as an excuse for him not taking her. * Ethan goes back to work for a little and then returns to the house for dinner. Him and Mattie have dinner alone together and it is the first time they have ever been alone. * The cat knocks over the pickle jar and Mattie is very worried because zeena will be mad as it was a wedding gift but Ethan calms her down and feels very in control. * After dinner Mattie and Ethan talk, but there are many uncomfortable moments. They do not go sledding because there is no moon that night and they would not be able to see the elm tree at the bottom of the slope. * Mattie says goodnight and heads upstairs and Ethan is disappointed again because he did not kiss her. * In the morning they have breakfast with Jotham, who is going to pick up Zeena…show more content…
Finally, Ethan gets his way and takes her to the train station. But before they go to the train station they go sledding. They end up kissing and Mattie says Ethan is the only one for her and they should sled down the hill to the elm tree and kill themselves. They sled down and hit the elm tree and the narration ends with Ethan hearing Mattie crying and saying he needs to feed the horse. * We learn that after the accident, Mattie survived even though she almost didn’t and wishes she hadn’t. Zeena then invited Mattie to come back and live with them and her health returned and she takes care of Mattie and Ethan now. We learn that they pretty much all had terrible lives. * Protagonist: Ethan Frome, Antagonist: Zeena Frome, Main conflict: Ethan’s conflict within himself, about his love for Mattie. * Theme- Love: characters are in a love triangle which they never escape. Ethan loves Mattie and wishes to reveal this to her, but he never truly can, and in the end they are stuck back at the Frome’s house with Zeena forever. This novel shows how Ethan maybe never even loved Zeena, he only married her because she helped Ethan’s mother while she was sick. Then Ethan has a small glimpse of love with Mattie, but it is taken away from him, and at the end of the story, it seems that their love is completely

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