Ethan Frome Writing Workshop

In the novel Ethan Frome, author Edith Wharton uses foreshadowing on Ethan’s relative’s gravestone as a strategic tool that helps to display the themes of the book: fate, free will, and death. The words inscribed on the tombstone, “quote,” indicate that like his forefathers, Ethan is fated to endure his marriage with Zeena. Unlike free will, this is Ethan’s destiny. Irrespective of fate or free will, Ethan’s ultimate destiny is death.

Sub-thesis points:1. Fate (p2)2. Free Will (p3)3. Death (p4)

Example Two…

In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the significance of Ethan Frome seeing the grave that had the engraving “Ethan Frome and his wife Endurance who dwelled together in peace for fifty years,” (33) is that Wharton portrays that this will be Ethan’s fate whether or not he wants it to be.

Sub-thesis points:

1.

2.

3.

An interpretation

Perhaps this quote means that Ethan is hopeful that his relationship with Zeena is a smooth road…no bumps, no potholes…and that he can just live out his existence with her.

Perhaps this quote means that Ethan’s forefather did not exert his own free will and get out of a relationship that was a painful as Ethan’s with Zeena…and that Ethan has a choice: to endure or to flee.

Example Three…The significance of the gravestone in Ethan

Frome, by Edith Wharton, was that it symbolized the living death that Ethan was living in while he was still trapped in his marriage to Zeena, everyone’s fate to die, and the permanence of a commitment such as marriage.

Sub-thesis points:1.2.3.