FREE ESSAY ON "THE WORLD OF EDITH WHARTON"

"THE WORLD OF EDITH WHARTON"

The Novelist's Life
All literary critics and sources that give accounts of Edith Newbold Jones
Wharton's life seem to agree on the basic facts. Wharton was born in 1862 into a wealthy
family and raised during America's Guilded Age. " She was born into the lavish world of
inherited wealth, one which she benefited from greatly. This life of luxury provided
Wharton with a rich source of material which she used to challenge the attitudes of
America's Guilded Age in her novels" ("World,"p.1). She spent portions of her childhood
growing up in places like Paris, Rome, and London, but received most of her education in
the United States. Wharton exhibited her talents in writing at a very early age. "I
cannot
remember a time when I did not want to make up stories" Wharton said in her
autobiography (DeCecco, p.1). 
In 1885 Edith Wharton married the very well-to-do Edward Wharton and the
couple continued to live in American high society. "However, Wharton's marriage proved
early on to be an unhappy one, and she was to suffer a series of nervous breakdowns as a
result" (DeCecco, p.1). In order to ease the strains of her marriage, Wharton began to
write again like she did as a child. Her first work was published in 1889; it was a book
on
interior decorating. Sixteen years later Wharton would write her first best seller, House
of
Mirth. "In the year 1911, she departed from her usual themes of jealousy, class system,
and the condition of women in society to write Ethan Frome , possibly her most famous
piece of writing" (DeCecco, p.2). However, "The World of Edith Wharton" disagrees
with this fact saying that Ethan Frome was written in the year 1912. Two years later
Wharton got a divorce from her husband which would end their disconsolate marriage. 
Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize in the year 1921 for her novel, Age of Innocence. 
"Shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize, she became the first woman to receive an
honorary degree from Yale University in 1924" ("World," p.2). Wharton's last novel, The
Buccaneers, was written after she took up residence in France, but the book was never
finished. Edith Wharton died shortly after starting it in the year 1937.
Critic DeCecco stresses the unhappy childhood Wharton had growing up while
"The World of Edith Wharton" portrays it as rather carefree and pleasant because of the
family's wealth and status. 
Although hers was a life of privilege, Wharton's life was not a happy one. 
Her father, though affectionate, was often absent, leaving the running of
the family to Lucretia, her mother, a stern, uninvolving woman who
rejected this daughter born to her in late life. In addition to the cold
climate of her home, the society in which Wharton was born 
offered her no opportunity for emotional or intellectual development
(DeCecco, p.1).
Wharton was excepted to be pure, young, and innocent and to remain the passive object of
men's wishes, however, she refused. Some of her later works reveal this tension brought
on by these expectations and constraints. 
The source, "The World of Edith Wharton" does not comment on her personality. 
The biography written by DeCecco does hint at the fact that Wharton was a little bit
rebellious and independent. She wrote many novels which challenged the turn-of-the
century New York society values; especially concerning women. Edith Wharton was
forced to grow up somewhat independent since her father was rarely present and her
mother was very distant. She exhibited her independence after divorcing Edward Wharton 
and living better on her own. "Wharton was a keen observer and chronicler of her
personal world" (DeCecco, p.2). 
The novel Ethan Frome was not typical of Wharton's writing style and themes. 
"In first telling and then writing stories about the grown-ups in her parents' world,
her
early literary efforts became her way of dealing with her mother's lack of love and the
crippling code of behavior imposed by the society in which she lived" (DeCecco, p.1). 
Wharton, up until 1911, wrote of infidelity, jealousy, class system, and the condition
of
women in society over which they had little control. "Ethan Frome was a stark tale about
the ordinary lives of an isolated, rural people living in the harsh New England
countryside"
(DeCecco, p.3). "While Ethan Frome, the stark New England tragedy, is possibly her
best-known work, it is the least typical of her art" (Erlich, p.1).
Literary Criticism
Ethan Frome is widely seen as the best and most popular novel of Edith Wharton
while also being the most different from her others. It is a tragic tale of two lovers,
Ethan
and Mattie, who never are able to spend their lives together despite their efforts.
Zeena,
Ethan's dictatorial and authoritarian wife, stands in their way throughout the entire
novel. 
Mattie was the woman he wanted and Zeena was the woman he needed (Bjorkman,
p.550). 
Critic Gore Vidal agrees with the common conception of Wharton as a stuffy,
Grande dame whose work is analogous to that of Henry James. Vidal believes that she
stands outside of the world that she describes in Ethan Frome, but is still able to
convincingly describe a bleak, New England town and its people. He refers to the first
few pages of the novel as a prime example of Wharton's wonderful descriptions that
produce a perfect image of Starkfield and Ethan in the reader's head. Critic Elizabeth
Ammons agrees with Vidal in saying that "the mood is dark and pessimistic in the town of
Starkfield." 
At the time when Wharton wrote Ethan Frome, she was under the influence of
French realists, but still pays homage to American classics. Several critics including
Vidal
and Ammons compare Ethan Frome to one of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novels, The
Blithdale Romance. The two books both take place in the same New England territory
and Wharton named Zenobia after a heroine of Hawthorne's novel.
Most critics agree that love is the key subject and verdict of Ethan Frome. " It is
both simple and harsh; complex, but not subtle" (Ammons, p.495). Ammons believes that
the novel "dramatizes sexual repression and bitter disillusion with love." Ethan's
character, throughout the novel, realizes that love is not accommodating or easy. He is
forced to choose between two different women which he loves, but in different ways. The
love triangle going on between Zeena, Mattie and Ethan present stirring questions of
morality. Is it allowable behavior for Ethan to leave Zeena the revolting nag and spend
his
time with the warm and affectionate Mattie (Poepsel, p.1)? When Ethan and Mattie
decide to sled into a tree and kill themselves, they are trying to escape that situation
which
so complicates their lives and challenges their morals. Their quest ultimately fails
when
they are merely hurt in the accident. After this event, the roles reverse and Zeena is
forced
to take care of the two while they have to live through a painful existence apart and
crippled. In the beginning of Ethan Frome, Zeena appears to be totally dependent on
Ethan and Mattie, but the question posed by critic Mark Poepsel is: "Was Zeena really
dependent on Ethan all those years?" The answer is no. Zeena is a hypochondriac who
finds the wrong in nearly every situation. When she doesn't have someone else to care
for, she finds disease in herself" (Poepsel, p.1). As Ammons said, "Prince charming,
properly understood, liberates his heroine into a life of permanent dependence." 
I could only find one point in which the novel Ethan Frome was criticized
negatively. Critics Bjorkman and Poepsel both commented that the novel lacks in
suspense. "From the start, the smash-up lies over the pages of the book" (Bjorkman,
p.550). However, I believe that this was merely foreshadowing used by Wharton and it
adds to the story. As well, I found the pages preceding the "smash-up" to be very
suspenseful because one cannot predict what the outcome might be. I do not agree with
Poepsel and Bjorkman when they say that the novel lacks suspense and has too much
foreshadowing.
In conclusion, most critics concur on the fact that Ethan Frome is one of Edith
Wharton's greatest novels and also the most deviant from her usual style. Instead of
concentrating on the hardships of women in the upper class society of New York,
Wharton explores the new, uncharted territory of New England. Ethan Frome is a story
of two star crossed lovers, not unlike Romeo and Juliet, whose family situation will not
allow them to be together. Wharton probes the questions of rectitude and morality in
this
novel and forces the characters as well as the reader to make a choice between loyalty
and
true love. In an effort to escape this difficult choice, Ethan's choice is made for him
and
he is forced to live on enduring pain and misery.
Bibliography
Bibliography
DeCecco, Flora. "The Life of Edith Wharton." Romance Communications January 1998: 
1-2. Literary Index. Online. AOL. 5 April 1998.
Erlich, Gloria C. "A Bio-bibliographical note about Edith Wharton." Edith Wharton
1992: 1-2. English Dept. Sites. Online. AOL. 5 April 1998.
Poepsei, Mark. "Ethan Frome: It's Better Than You Might Think." Literary Magazine
February 1998: 1-2. H-G Reviews: Ethan Frome. Online. AOL. 5 April 1998.
Riley, Carolyn, ed. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. 2 vol. Detroit: Gale
Research Company, 1983. 
"World of Edith Wharton." Arts Feature. Online. AOL. 5 April 1998.