CCapocasale_Ethan Frome Notes

Ethan Frome characters: name, background, actions, thoughts, interactions with other characters.

ZENOBIA                                                                                                                            
How is Zenobia characterisation built by the narrator and what is her relationship with the enviroment?
The setting creates a perfect balance between Zenobia and her way of thinking. 
She firstly is chracterised by her proper name (Zenobia or Zeena) but not by her proper surname, so the reader only knows her as Zeena Frome. This choice suggests the reader the idea of the typical woman during the puritanism. In this period the main decision were taken by the man. Anyway the name is really important to attribute an identity to the subject: the spelling of Zeus in gree language is “Zeno” and the greek “bios” refers to life, so Zenobia means Zeno’s life. 
The second relevant chracteristic is given thanks to her status: a married and ill woman who was used to be a nurse. Where as her phisical describtion is not accurated, but the reader has the idea of an old and absolutely not beautiful woman.
Her chracter is created by language, especially the narrator reflects more on showing off her (and not telling about her). He uses a lot of dialogs, so the reader can understand the indirect comunication between Zenobia and Ethan, which leaves both of them unsatisfied. 
She is the victim of an entire society and state of mind that diminish woman’s role. She also has just worthless tasks and moreover she always rest in a close setting. So her only way to draw attention is acting like a ill person.

MATTIE
Mattie seems to be the opposite character of Zenobia and represents for Ethan the object of desire (she often wears red) and especially the chance, something new for him. The reader can firstly understand it by the name: simple, short, sweet. On the contrary, in regard to Zeena, she always live in an open space dedicating herself to cheerful activities like singing and dancing. These difference between them underline that the contradditions in woman’s role come to life during puritanism’s period. 
Anyway, thanks to the analysis the intelligent reader can understand that the two females characters are functional for each other.

ETHAN
Ethan is novel’s protagonist beacuse he is a very complex character, suitable for this role: he makes the story moves.
Probably the name and surname may anticipate the personal features of the character. 
Then the reader can understand somthing about his background: he is an humble man living in a poor family, working in a farm and looking after his ill mother (and then wife). He studied scientific subjects, so even if he is poor he’s not ignorant.
Ethan is passive and unable to make a decision, so he’s really insicure and indecided, he fears loneliness too and feels afraid of undiscover (Hamlet, “The undiscover country from which no travellers return”, this means that man is afraid of undiscover and adapt himself in known circumstances). He also is weak, submitted by society and by his wife… especially he has not strong convinctions so he doesn’t believedeeply in what he does or thinks. Often being unable to make a decisioni s related to other people or faith. 
The most important Ethan’s characteristic is that he always has a strong natue of dependence in his mother’s regard. This bond marked him in the way of seeing every woman of his life (he represents the italian freudian expression “figlio matrizzato”). So often he feels to shy or reserved to go over the bonds, he probably needs more courage.
Ethan can be defined as an half way character (not flat or round), beacuse he has the will to change his life but only i regard of needs, and not real desires or passions. So he wants to go over society’s bonds but he can’t manage doing it beacuse of his emotive weakness. He is so afraid of imaging his life out of the circumstance he knows. This is also the reason why he married Zeena: nobody forced him but he made that decision beacuse it was the easier way to not rest alone. Moreover his actions are tied to consequences (for example he hosts the narrator beacuse of the orrible weather conditions).
The reader can considers Ethan a victim too, beacuse he is a puritan enviroment’s citizen and he is affected by it… since he was born he hal always been a subject in a way or another. Moreover he always seems to repeat the same models during his whole life. So his behaviours and actions are products of society’s circumstances and even of his nature: shy, reserved and idealist (despite his passion for science he loves abstract things like watching the stars and dreaming).

THEMES OF THE NOVEL: 
- loneliness
- illness
- contrast between reality and imagination
- choice among life and death (suicide)

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF AN EXTRACT FROM THE FOURTH CHAPTER OF “ETHAN FROME”
Firstly we read the text in order to have a general impression, the second reading is useful to find out the focus of the paragraph (which actually is to express Ethan’s nature).
The very fisrt impression is that Ethan felt at ease by the absence of his wife and his mood is positive and especially different, indeed he used to be always silent, now he sings and whistles. So the atmosphere is good and give dynamism to the scene. The reader can understand it by words like “sweetness”, “relief”, “unfounded fears”, so he’s calm.
Thanks to the narrator point of view the reader can perfectly understand what crosses in Ethan’s mind. 
Moreover, during the narration, the narrator uses Ethan’s reputation to express some personal considerations in the protagonist’s regard: “There was in him a slumbering spar of sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not extinguished”; “By nature grave and inarticulate” (the reader understand that Ethan is unable to express himslef and by nature his shy, reserved, silent, afraid,…). Despite his nature Ethan admires other’s happyness and other’s ability to comunicate (and this is the reasons why he married Zeena) and this is proved by his serenity when someone at school waved at him or greeted him (àthe focus switches from his actual feelings to his past).
The weather and the landscapes reflect his feelings: snowy fields, long winters, chill, cessation of such familiarities. Even the language is useful to express his feeling of imprisonment: burden, alone, loneliness, oppressive, accident. So the reader perceives the heavyness of his life. At his return to Starkfield from college this burden became even worse and once at home he had no time to interact with people beacuse of the work or other worries. 
Then the narration moves to her mother, who was initially a talker, but with the illness she stopped and now Ethans miss her voice (beginning: he feels comforted beacuse of the silence/ now: he feels sad and miss sounds).