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Example research essay topic: Ethan And Mattie Ethan Frome - 683 words

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Symbolism in Ethan Frome The novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, uses symbolism to reveal hidden ideas and gives a deeper meaning to the novel. Symbolism is an object, sign, or image that is used to stand for something else. The symbol has both literal significance and additional abstract meaning. Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome, the main character, suffers from isolation and loneliness. He is a man who is trapped in Starkfield because of his responsibility to his family and his marriage to Zeena, the woman who nursed his mother. Zeena is emotionless, depressed, passive, and manipulative.

Ethan marriage to Zeena occurs because he does not want to be lonely after his mothers death. Ethan's life began to brighten up after Mattie Silver, Zeena's cousin, moves in with them. Mattie is a fun, energetic, and sociable woman. Many symbolisms are used to describe these characters. The outdoors, the kitchen, and the red pickle dish are symbols presented in the novel Ethan Frome.

The outdoors in Starkfield symbolizes the emotional and physical isolation, cold, darkness, and death that surround Ethan (Free Essays). He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface; but there was nothing unfriendly in his silence (Wharton 8). The description of the winter gives a sense of silence, desolation, and despair felt by each of the characters. As the narrator explains, I had a sense that his loneliness was not merely the result of his personal plight, tragic as I guessed that to be, but had in it the profound accumulated cold of many winters (Wharton 8).

This description sets the mood for the novel. The symbolism of the outdoors describes the darkness and isolation shown in the novel Ethan Frome. The kitchen represents another symbolism in the novel. The kitchen symbolizes the nightmare and liveliness of the existence of each character. The kitchen is like a chilly vault for Ethan's wife Zeena. Without Zeena presence, the kitchen is warm and bright and has a distinctly homelike appearance.

The kitchen was a poor place, not spruce and shining as his mother had kept it in his boyhood; but it was surprising what a homelike look the mere fact of Zeena's absence gave it (Wharton 34). The presence of Mattie gives life to the kitchen. She held the light at the same level, and it drew out with the same distinctness her slim young throat and the brown wrist no bigger than a childs. Then striking upward, it threw a lustrous fleck on her lips, edged her eyes with velvet shade, and laid a milky whiteness above the black curve of her brows (Wharton 40). The symbolic meaning of the kitchen set a dark yet liveliness mood to the novel. The last symbolism is the red pickle dish.

The red pickle dish symbolizes the forbidden love between Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver. The red color represents the passion that Ethan and Mattie have for each other. The location of the pickle dish on the top shelf of the china closet and the breaking of the pickle dish reveal the consequences of Ethan and Mattie's love. The red pickle dish symbolizes the character of Zeena as well.

The fact that the Zeena never use the pickle dish symbolizes the passion that Zeena never have for Ethan. The symbolism of the red pickle dish reveals the feeling that each of the character has and doesnt have for each other. Edith Wharton uses symbolism to express the isolation and desire of Ethan Frome. The symbolism in the novel includes the outdoors, the kitchen, and the red pickle dish.

The outdoors symbolizes the coldness and loneliness of Ethan Frome because of the lack of communication between Zeena and him. The kitchen symbolizes both the nightmare and the liveliness of each character. The red pickle dish symbolizes the forbidden love of Ethan and Mattie because of Ethan's responsibility to Zeena. Edith Wharton's use of symbolism gives the novel a deeper understanding to all of the characters thoughts.


Free research essays on topics related to: ethan and mattie, mattie silver, pickle dish, ethan frome, edith wharton

Research essay sample on Ethan And Mattie Ethan Frome

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