Ethan Frome Vs. The Awakening Essay

Is independence an intangible dream? Are sight in truth individuals, or merely products of their environment? Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin explore the question in Ethan Frome and The Awakening, in which the protagonists are lead by outside forces to challenge social conventions. Employing the use of characterization, typeism, and metaphor, the authors demonstrate that attempting to do so can lead to singles destruction.The main characters in Frome and Awakening fill necessary components and package similar attributes. Ethan is described as a l starr, quiet, and uncomfortable interacting with stack in town, even with Mattie, the woman he loves. He cowers in the formidable bearing of his bitter wife, unwilling to defend himself against her wrath. Similarly, Edna feels out of place in both the relaxed Creole environment and stiff Victorian inn. In many instances, she does not even understand herself and cant ex uncompounded her behavior to family or friends. Both characters s truggle to escape their surroundings. Ethan dreams desperately of leaving Starkfield behind for the watt while Edna builds her own dream house in favor of the expansive cage in which her husband placed her. The villainess of Whartons novelette is Zenobia Frome, Ethans wife.She is characterized repeatedly as embittered, inscrutable, and sickly. Her marriage to Ethan is loveless and she prefers nursing her many illnesses than retention the company of her husband. Leonce Pontellier is Ednas controlling partner, intent on molding her into his idealistic wife. He despairs over Ednas abandonment of convention, the absence of proper cheering toward him and lack of motherly devotion. To Leonce, Edna is a possession, an expensive commodity You are destroy beyond recognition, he added, looking at his wife as one looks at a valuable piece of personal property which has suffered some damage. Mattie Silver in Frome and Robert Lebrun in Awakening play crucial roles in their respected stori es.They are interlopers in unhappy marriages and possess all the qualities that Ethan and Edna ample for. Mattie is the teasing, laughing cousin of Zeena. Her sparkling personality stands in sharp tell apart against the Fromes. She is associated with light and brings happiness into Ethans bleak world. Robert Lebrun is the flirtatious Creole Edna travel in love with. His appeal is his careless sensuality and his careful attention of Edna and her whims. Although neither relationship is consummated, Mattie andRobert are attributes of life without constraint, of what could be if the chains of society were cast off. symbolism is found in many every day occurrences and items within Ethan Frome and The Awakening. Edith Whartons use of snow and dreariness underlies the repeated symbol of death and decay. Most of the story takes place in the depths of winter, when life drains from plants and trees, when piss stops flowing, and when living creatures hibernate. Even people, to escape win ter, bury themselves inside weensy huts and houses. Although performing the basic functions of one alive, Zeena has cut herself off from the world. Figuratively, she is dead. After the smash-up, Mattie and Ethan conceal themselves with her in their small, meager shack. Another repetitive symbol is the illusion red. It eternally is in conjunction with Mattie a ribbon in her hair, a jerk off about her neck. with her hair she had run a streak of red ribbon. This tributetransformed and glorified her. She seemedmore womanly The bold color often appears when Ethan is feeling particularly passionate about his love for Mattie. It is a signature of her vitality and youthful energy.The antique pickle dish of Zeenas becomes an burning(prenominal) symbol after it breaks. The fragile glass represents the Fromes shattered marriage, heedlessly handled by Mattie. Ethan attempts to conceal the ruined dish by carefully placing the pieces near to each other, hiding it back on the shelf as if cipher is wrong. Zeena, with her discovery, places more value on a material object than on the relationships disintegrating around her. She mourns the destruction of an antique rather than her true loss her marriage. Symbolism within The Awakening is a constant reminder of society. Madame Adle Ratignolle is often described as the perfect society woman. She is beautiful, a loving mother, an adoring wife, and completely subservient to her husbands opinion. Madame Ratignolle would do anything for her children. In contrast, Edna claims that she would sacrifice her life for her children, but she would not sacrifice herself for them. While Adle is the symbol for everything Edna should strive to be, she also serves as a consider of what Edna hopes to break free of as the story progresses.The Awakening opens with a echo shrieking in two different addresss. It is explained that the parrot possesses knowledge of a little French a little Spanish, and also a language which nobody understo od. Theparrot symbolizes Edna and her life forever caged in a role that does not suit her strong willed character. She acts (or sings), in ways that bewilder her peers. When mademoiselle Reisz put her arms around Edna and felt her shoulder blades to see if her fly were strong she said the bird that would soar above the level plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a meritless spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.This serves emphasize the caged bird theme as well as foreshadow Ednas eventual fate. The most important piece of symbolism is the sea. The water simultaneously draws and repels Edna she headaches it, yet is seduced by its spell book binding flow. Edna was unable to swim because she was afraid of abandoning herself to the sea. For her, learning to swim was a symbol of her sexual awakening and her commit to rebel against social conventions. She wants to swim where no woman had swum before but in her daring, swi ms further out than she intends and fear seizes her once again.Sledding is an activity in which the rider may patch up to gravity and the elements, or orchestrate to alter course. This winter sport serves as an extended metaphor in Ethan Frome. In agreeing with Matties suicide plan, Ethan decides to steer and drive into the elm. As an endeavor fraught with danger, the sleigh ride serves as metaphorical sexual encounter. The structure is such that it imitates the intimate act. However, the end has unpredictable and tragic consequences when the intended suicide goes wrong. Clothing during the Victorian era was restricting, binding like cages. Throughout The Awakening Edna sheds more and more clothing through each scene, metaphorically removing herself little by little from society.In the root she is fully clothed but slowly trades the confining cloth for simple(a) muslin dresses open at the throat, light, commodious wrappers and, finally, at the end, she stands naked upon the sea shore. Rejected by Robert, who refuses to enter an affair with her, Edna enters the foaming waves to find liberation in suicide. earlier the salty water closes over her, she spots a bird with a broken wing sinking into the surf. The bird symbolized Ednas failure to light upon the goal that had driven her throughout the novel. Freedom in death is the solitary(prenominal) choice society will allow her to make.The inability to reconcile their desire for individual happiness to their need for social acceptance ultimately led Ethan and Edna to seek happiness through death, answering Edith Wharton and Kate Chopins question of whether people can disentangle themselves from the confining clutches of their environment. None can truly escape societal expectations. One is pressured to concede their individuality for conformity. Defiance leads to a life of ostracism and unhappiness.