In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, The Reader Easily Sees The Main Character, Ethan

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Term Paper Title	In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, The Reader Easily Sees The Main Character, Ethan
# of Words	1054
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.22

In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, the reader easily sees the main character, Ethan Frome, as both admirable and pitiable.  There are many extremes to the admirable and pitiable traits of Ethan Frome. While the readers admire Frome, they are also able to pity him at the same time.
     Ethan Frome can be admired for his heroism. He always comes through to save Mattie Silver, his secret love.  In a particular scene in the story, Mattie breaks Zeena’s, Ethan’s wife, pickle dish.  The pickle dish was a possession that Zeena treasured and hardly used.  Although it was so important to Zeena, Ethan viewed the situation as something not so important, even though it should have been.  He tried to make Mattie feel better.  “She needn’t know anything about it if you keep quiet.  I’ll get another just like it tomorrow.  Where did it come from?  I’ll go to Shadd’s Falls for it if I have to!” (Wharton, 62)  Ethan came to the rescue for Mattie to keep her from getting in trouble.  A person who would go to such a length for someone is considered admirable.
     Another admirable trait that Ethan holds is his sensitivity to natural beauty.  He looks at Mattie with so much love and respect.  He is not obsessive about the beauty, but in awe of it.  “He had always been more sensitive than the people about him to the appeal of natural beauty.” (23) He has never been subject to such a beautiful and free spirit after being married to Zeena.  After everything he has been through one might think he would take advantage of this beautiful young girl.  But he did not.  He respected her.  “He knew that most young men made nothing at all of giving a pretty girl a kiss, and he remembered the night before, when he had put his arm around Mattie and she had not resisted.” (67)

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With the admirable trait of sensitivity to natural beauty, it is easy to say that Ethan has considerable amount of respect for fellow human beings.  He still feels the jealousy towards Denis Eady, and the aggravation towards Zeena, but never lets his emotions show through his actions.
The reason that Ethan did not openly show his affection to Mattie could be due to the admirable respect that he has for Zeena.  In spite of the fact that he married Zeena out of gratitude for her helping take care of his sick parents, and she does nothing but complain about being sick, he still does not go against the sacred wedding vows he took with Zeena.  Ethan does have strong feelings for Mattie but he continues to care for Zeena.   An ...

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