Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Textual Analysis - Prologue to Ethan Frome
Please submit the text of your textual analysis of the prologue to Ethan Frome as a comment to this entry before Monday, October 12. Your answer to this question will be assessed and will count toward your first quarter grade.
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FIRST XD
ReplyDeleteLoneliness and Death
The author Edith Wharton emphasizes death in many ways in this passage from ‘Ethan Frome’. By matching Ethan to the landscape his lame elbow with the idle wheel looming. A ‘black stream” also signifies death because it is not normal as if the stream has died this can link us to the hemlock bough which are bent by the weight of snow, for poison to be defeated by snow is quiet disturbing and really does give the sense of death.
Death in the passage is portrayed as the feeling of the shiver in the wind and the starved writhing apple trees meaning there is death in the air. Furthermore the narrator even senses death in Frome’s words; for Frome to see the diminishing dwelling the image of his own shrunken body showing he is broken in some way like the house.
The author emphasizes loneliness in the same extract by using the ‘solitary roof’ meaning the roof was the only one around plus the saw-mill with its idle wheel looming which not only emphasizes loneliness but also death. We can imagine the unusual forlorn look of the house and we get a lonely image as an outcome.
The loneliness of the house brought on by the new railway station which seemed to worsen Frome’s mum’s condition which preyed on her until she died as it dragged all the people that used to pass by away from the house.
Loneliness and Death
ReplyDeleteThe author of Ethan Frome, known as Edith Wharton, has emphasized loneliness and death by giving some hints to his writing to show the mood/feeling. As an example, Edith Wharton used “It looked exanimate enough, with its idle wheel looming above the black stream dashed…” as an example for death. Exanimate is also another way of saying ‘not working’ or death. Also, if you are imaginative, when you hear ‘black stream’ you would think of death in a way.
Another example can be “The diminished dwelling of his shrunken body.” Since his body is shrunken it means that the body has no life left and the soul isn’t in the body form. That there is no life left in the body.
Hope this is good ;]
ReplyDeleteDeath and Loneliness
Edith Wharton emphasizes death and loneliness quite well in the prologue to 'Ethan Frome'. The author emphasizes death in this sentence in a thoughtful way, 'Outcroppings of slate that nuzzled up through the snow like animals pushing out their noses to breath' this gives you an image of animals being buried underneath all the snow.
Edith also emphasizes death by mentioning 'The Black Wraith of a deciduous creeper' as well as 'seemed to shiver in the wind that had risen with the ceasing of the snow' these both tell of how there might have been death lingering in the air because of The Black Wraith and the Shivering in the wind.
Now Edith emphasized Loneliness by mentioning Ethan's Farm House as it seems to be missing the 'Key' part to the structure, the 'L' shape. 'Partly due to the loss of what is known in New England as the "L"'. At the beginning Edith mentions 'Solitary roof' and that nothing is surrounding it only bare branches and snow, meaning loneliness.
The 'Solitary Roof' is part of Ethan's Saw-Mill with its 'idle wheel' meaning that it was not operational thus just been left alone.
The book is called "Ethan Frome", and it is written by Edith Wharton. It sets in the beginning of 20th century, Massachusetts, in a small village called “Starkfield”, which is a depressing name of the town to start off with.
ReplyDeleteEven though we only read prologue, I can say that it is a very sad and depressing book.
In class we discussed that it might be Edith Wharton imagining that she is Ethan Frome, because perhaps she wanted to be a man because it was these times when men and women were not as equal as they are today, and we got it from the name of the character; both names start with “E” and five letters each.
The book starts off as a narrator who is just a man who came to Starkfield for work, tells us how he met Ethan Frome the first time: “If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins on his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade; and you must have asked who he was.”
I think this paragraph is very important because it tell us that Ethan drives up to a post office quite often, because you must have seen him, and it also says that this town is very small meaning that everyone knows each other.
There are many cold winters which Edith Wharton describes very well, and she also mentions that they affect people, which is something you have never thought of before probably. So, narrator is stuck in that village because it was too much snow, so he stays there and meets Ethan Frome.
Ethan Frome is a depressed character, he always had to take care of his parents until they died, and now he has to take care of his wife who is ill, so he can’t move out from Starkfield like the rest of the smart people. He is also not very talkative person, but the narrator get him to speak a little when both of them get to know about a science magazine which both of them like because they are interested in science.
Then Ethan eventually brings the narrator to his house, and the narrator doesn’t like the house because it is old, not cozy, and not neat meaning that even some letter are missing, and then Ethan tells the narrator about his mother and how the railway affected her.
Loneliness & Death;
ReplyDeleteThe book “Ethan Frome” was written by Edith Wharton who emphasizes death in several ways in the story of Ethan Frome, to express and show the mood and feelings.
As an example for death she had used “It looked exanimate enough, with its idle wheel looming above the black stream” this explains death with exanimate, which also means not functional or either death.
Wharton also emphasizes loneliness in the way of mentioning Ethan Frome’s farm house most probably due to the loss of his mother. In the beginning the author mentions the ‘Solitary Roof’ that there is nothing but branches and snow, which also makes us believe the place, is lonely.
Christina L.
in this passage Edith Wharton emphasizes death and loneliness in many ways. she uses words such as 'hemlock' a poisonous plant, 'exanimate' meaning to kill or die off, or to get rid off. as well as 'starved' and 'ceased' puts this image of death in the readers mind.
ReplyDeleteto show loneliness Edith Wharton uses words to set an solemn atmosphere. she uses words like 'solitary', 'lost', 'forlorn' and 'consolatory'which all are words that basically have the same meaning as alone suggesting that this small passage from "Ethan Frome" is very dull and sad
Edith Wharton emphasizes death and loneliness in the story, ETHAN FROME, in multiple ways. In a way, she hid them in with her descriptions of 'starkfield', which made the setting live up to it's name.
ReplyDeleteFor death, she described how empty and lifeless the landscape was, which, as I said before, makes the town live up to it's name 'Starkfield.' Using words such as 'examinate' 'hemlock' 'ceased' and other words gives the story more of a feel of death, rather than life or happiness.
For Loneliness, she described how Ethan's mother was affected by the trainstation cutting them off from interaction with other people. When the train station was built, Ethan's home was isolated from the rest, leaving them cut off from the rest of the town. Words like 'solitary' saying 'idle wheel looming' give off the impression of loneliness, or isolation, as well as death.
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ReplyDeleteEthan Frome:
ReplyDeleteDeath and Loneliness:
Even in these 2 short paragraphs, Edith Wharton manages to put in do many descriptives words that imply death and loneliness.
To show loneliness, she used words such as solitary which means alone, in silence which implies that no one else is there hence loneliness, exposed which is another word for loneliness, forlorn which means abandoned or left behind, enclosing which means sheltering itself from the lest of the world, and wistful which is missing something really badly in a sad way. These are allready 6 words that express loneliness in these short paragraphs.
To show death, she uses many words such as hemlock, bare branches which shows that the trees are dead, exanimate which means not living anymore, looming, starved which means death because of hunger, writhing, nzzled, lost which could mean death, lame which means damaged, ceased which is another word for death, worn which means it has eroded showing that it is gone, "in my father's time" which is showing that her father is dead, diminished whcih means gone or finished, and finally, she uses the word "died" at the very end.
Overall, we can see that this author has a wide knowledge of various vocabulary and can use them in really good ways throughout the book, to imply things without writing them,sometimes even unnoticably.