In Ethan Frome, Wharton uses imagery to depict the ways individual expression is subjugate by social constraints. Ethan Frome, the protagonist in the tragic novel, is a victim of the social expectations. The setting for the novel, Starkfield, is bleak and barren, like the deadness of the community. Wharton criticises the traditional conventions, which prevent Ethan from escaping from a matrimony in which he has no happiness, to pursue a new feeling.
Ethans matrimony to the hypochondriac Zeena is Whartons way of expressing her disapproval of the traditional conventions of the early twentieth century. Zeena is portrayed as a mysterious alien presence, an diabolic energy secreted from the long years of silent brooding. Zeena is exemplary of societys constraints, of the traditional conventions, which prevent Ethan from seeking a new life of his own. The lack of communication between the Fromes is the main reason their man and wife failed. Wharton shows how people were repressed in her society by their marriages. Ethan want to escape through his fantasies and illusions. He dreams of escape with Mattie, but is inefficient to do so due to his lack of financial means, and the present malingering Zeena.
Wharton uses the broken pickle dish as a symbol of Zeena and her marriage.
Like the dish which was tucked away uselessly in the dark, Zeena prefers never to take a part in life. The broken dish symbolises the Fromes broken marriage, which was non salvageable. It is ironic that Zeena view the symbol of their marriage, but not the marriage itself.
Wharton challenges the sanctity of marriage and expresses that marriage can be a mistake by portraying a young man who is trapped in a marriage with a charwoman he does not love, and is unable to escape by running away with the woman he truly...
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