“Frozen Hell: Edith Wharton’s Tragic Offering” by Samuel Fisher Dodson
Dodson’s thesis statement is “Wharton fused the sterile
environment of New England with Ethan’s inability to communicate with others
into one of literature’s darkest tragedies.” The author categorizes Ethan
Frome as a work of modern tragedy. Dodson believes Ethan to be the ‘hero’
in this novel. Modern world tragedies “contain
only real people who make mistakes, suffer, and die or endure” (Dodson, 309). In Ethan Frome, Ethan is the morally
good person who suffers through his own wants and passions only making others
happy but not himself. Ethan is unable to do anything for himself if that means
hurting someone in some way in the process. For example he wanted to finish his
education but his parents got sick so he felt he had to help them before he
could help himself to an education. Arthur Miller suggests in “Tragedy and the
Common Man” that tragedy exists “when we are in the presence of a character who
is ready to lay down his life, if need be, to secure one thing- his sense of
personal dignity”. This fits in perfectly with the story of Ethan Frome.
Ethan could not do anything he wanted. He wanted to run off with Mattie and
start a new life where he could pursue his dreams but then there was Zeena. He
could not leave Zeena with only the farm. He knew there would be little or no
chance she could sell it to support herself. Ethan may have thought that by
taking his own life that he could have a sense of personal dignity.
Dodson had backed up all of his thoughts with significant support
from the text. He told what a modern tragedy was and then explained how he
thought the novel Ethan Frome fit into this category backing his thoughts
with quotes from the text. I agree that Ethan Frome is a work of modern
tragedy. In the beginning of the novel Wharton describes Ethan as having
everything a hero would have and even mentions that her work was that of a
modern tragedy. He helped everyone by putting them before himself but his flaw
was that he could not communicate with anyone to be able to have the power to
help himself. Throughout the novel, Ethan Frome had done everything he could to
help others. He gave up his education to help his parents when they fell ill
and he gave up his dream of moving out of Starkfield to become successful when
Zeena fell ill. Ethan could not communicate he just did not know how. He and
Zeena had only had their first fight in their entire seven years of their marriage.
They had not talked to each other before to be able to fight. Then when Mattie
suggested they should die together, running into the tree, he could not communicate
to her that it was not a solution to their problem, so when along with it.
Ethan felt like this was an escape from all the stress in his life pleasing
others but not making himself happy. The hero was Ethan Frome but his flaw was
the inability to communicate. The result was the suffering that not only did he
bring for himself but also to Mattie.
My question to everyone is: was Ethan Frome truly a morally
good person? I do not believe so. Although he did everything he could to help
people, he did not always think of himself first. First of all he had thoughts
about Mattie when he was married to Zeena and even kissed her. He thought only
of what he wanted. He didn’t seem to care what would happen between him and
Zeena. Then, when the pickle dish broke instead of confessing to Zeena what had
happened he tried to hide it. When Zeena found it broken he lied to her to
cover up what happened. Another thing I thought was morally unjust for Ethan
was the fact that he tried to kill himself with Mattie. He had not thought of
others before himself. He wanted to get away from everything but he didn’t think
of what could happen to Zeena if he did die. She would be in the same position
unable to provide for herself if Ethan died or if he ran away with Mattie.
Lastly the first immoral thing I think Ethan did was propose to Zeena. He had
not thought about what would be good for her; he only wanted someone there with
him so he would not be alone.
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