I am not completely sure as to what Wharton was trying to say with this story and quite frankly I was completely disappointed with the ending.
One thing that I did notice was that the main character's name was 'Charity.' I wonder if this was meant to symbolize the charity that Mr. Royall showed when he took the child from the mountains in an attempt to give her a better life. Another thing I noticed was the name Mr. 'Royall.' It appears to me that the name is to represent a kind of King of the town, which is precisely what Mr. Royall was. I think Wharton used these two names to represent that those with power, namely the royals, are always doing charity work. At least that is one way of looking at it; she may have had something else in mind. Any thoughts?
I kind of felt that Mr. Royall was a bit of a pervert, especially since Charity was like his own child. When you take a child in at 5 years old and raise them, they are basically your child, so his wanting to marry her and be with her was a bit creepy for my taste. However, I do realize that during this time period, there was probably nothing creepy about it, since she was not of his blood. And at some points in the story, I actually felt a bit sorry for the man, considering how horrible she treated him.
I don't think that Charity was as strong or as in control as she was made out to be. The fact that she was quick to fall for a man she really knew nothing about and how she did as he told her, said that she really had no control. I also thought this when she was dealing with Mr.Royall since she was quick to follow his instruction of coming in and speaking with him or getting into the buggy towards the end of the story, which showed that she had no real control over her life. This lack of control was really evident when she consistently spoke of the need to run away from her problems. A strong person would not run away, but would stand their ground and find a way to resolve their problems.
I did like Harney at first. However, I thought it was really crappy that he did not tell her of his engagement. To a young woman or even one later in years, this betrayal can be devastating. I think that the way she dealt with this betrayal was interesting, because it made me think that she was not truly in love with the man. To let someone off the hook by saying do what is right, seems to suggest that to her he was simply a fling. And maybe that was the point.
Still in the end, I so wanted Harney to show up and tell her he loved her and to marry her (especially since she was carrying his child of which she did not tell him), but that did not happen. Plus I really did not like how she ended the story with Charity married to Mr. Royall (no real surprise) and them returning to the red house of which they shared. It left me hanging, so I felt kind of ripped off, because I did not get the ending I needed. Maybe too, this was Wharton's way of saying you figure out the real ending and think for yourself.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Ethan Frome
The story "Ethan Frome" by Edith Wharton is a tragic love story.
At the beginning of the story one gets the idea that Ethan Frome is a recluse or perhaps unsociable, but this is because we do not know the story behind the character. Perhaps this was written this way to give the reader the image of a broken down old man who lived a hard life. It is the imagery that appears to matter.
As the story continues, we learn that Ethan's life has not been easy. He lost his father when he was in college, so he was not able to continue on with his studies, because he had to return home to take care of his mother. She also dies and this leads Ethan to marry Zeena, who he believes is a strong woman, but it turns out that she is a hypochondriac. She is also cruel and punishes Ethan for a false illness that she claims was caused by her taking care of his mother.
Mattie is the opposite of Zeena, which is probably why Ethan fell in love with her. She is younger than he is (Zeena is older than he is) and she has more life to her. She wants to see the world as a beautiful place and she appears to know who she wants to be with.
It is tragic that it took the Ethan and Mattie so long to declare their love for one another. Perhaps if they had not waited so long, then things would have turned out differently. Instead, they wait until Zeena is sending Mattie away (which is wrong on all accounts, since the girl has no money and she is family) to declare their love and then rather than finding a way to keep Mattie there, they try to kill themselves. Honestly, one would have thought that since Ethan was the head of the household and given the time period, that he could have put his foot down and told his wife to shove it!
The real tragedy is that instead of dying they are left disfigured and/or paralyzed. And although Mattie and Ethan are able to be together they still have to contend with Zeena. And since their plan did not work, they probably have feelings of regret and remorse which would not make for a happy life.
I think that perhaps Wharton was attempting to show that love does not always conquer all. It can be, as is the case for this story, damaging because it can cause people to be cold and distant, thus making them outcasts from normal society. I think she was also trying to show that people are so much more than what one can see. Ethan was made to be hard, quiet and appearing to be unsociable, because of the life he had led; yet he was not so unsociable, because he took an outsider into his home on a snowy night and would even discuss, albeit lightly, engineering and other such things with this outsider. Perhaps the moral here is that people within the town made him an outcast and he found it easier to be an outcast/unsociable because he didn't want to deal with their questions about why he was sledding on the hill with Mattie and why he has two women under his roof. I think there are a lot of people who would rather be cast as such, than deal with people questioning them so. I know I would.
At the beginning of the story one gets the idea that Ethan Frome is a recluse or perhaps unsociable, but this is because we do not know the story behind the character. Perhaps this was written this way to give the reader the image of a broken down old man who lived a hard life. It is the imagery that appears to matter.
As the story continues, we learn that Ethan's life has not been easy. He lost his father when he was in college, so he was not able to continue on with his studies, because he had to return home to take care of his mother. She also dies and this leads Ethan to marry Zeena, who he believes is a strong woman, but it turns out that she is a hypochondriac. She is also cruel and punishes Ethan for a false illness that she claims was caused by her taking care of his mother.
Mattie is the opposite of Zeena, which is probably why Ethan fell in love with her. She is younger than he is (Zeena is older than he is) and she has more life to her. She wants to see the world as a beautiful place and she appears to know who she wants to be with.
It is tragic that it took the Ethan and Mattie so long to declare their love for one another. Perhaps if they had not waited so long, then things would have turned out differently. Instead, they wait until Zeena is sending Mattie away (which is wrong on all accounts, since the girl has no money and she is family) to declare their love and then rather than finding a way to keep Mattie there, they try to kill themselves. Honestly, one would have thought that since Ethan was the head of the household and given the time period, that he could have put his foot down and told his wife to shove it!
The real tragedy is that instead of dying they are left disfigured and/or paralyzed. And although Mattie and Ethan are able to be together they still have to contend with Zeena. And since their plan did not work, they probably have feelings of regret and remorse which would not make for a happy life.
I think that perhaps Wharton was attempting to show that love does not always conquer all. It can be, as is the case for this story, damaging because it can cause people to be cold and distant, thus making them outcasts from normal society. I think she was also trying to show that people are so much more than what one can see. Ethan was made to be hard, quiet and appearing to be unsociable, because of the life he had led; yet he was not so unsociable, because he took an outsider into his home on a snowy night and would even discuss, albeit lightly, engineering and other such things with this outsider. Perhaps the moral here is that people within the town made him an outcast and he found it easier to be an outcast/unsociable because he didn't want to deal with their questions about why he was sledding on the hill with Mattie and why he has two women under his roof. I think there are a lot of people who would rather be cast as such, than deal with people questioning them so. I know I would.
Friday, March 2, 2012
Robert Frost's "Desert Places"
Robert Frost's "Desert Places" is a poem that truly deals with the complexities of nature. The contrasting ideologies within the poem are meant to heighten one's perceptions as to what is nature and what is man's part in controlling the land and the universe. Plus these contrasts are used to help man understand where the feeling of nothingness really comes from.
In the first stanza, Frost uses "snow falling" and "night falling" to heighten one's perception. It is essential that the light from the snow falling shows the darkness descending on the land. It sets up this eerie perception, because the light from the snow is not enough to truly see the world. Also in this stanza we have a "field," but it is not a natural field because the field has "weeds" and "stubble" coming up, which means that it is man made or a cultivated field. These two contrasts of "weeds" and "stubble" show how nature will reclaim that which man has taken over.
In the second stanza we get animals being "smothered in their lairs" and "absent-spirited" which are meant to signify the concept of death and that one is lonely and not in touch with nature.
The third stanza repeats the concept of "lonely." This lonely and loneliness adds to the dark feeling of the poem and how one is out of touch with the natural world, which means too that they are out of touch with themselves. This stanza also has the snow annihilating everything, "A blanker whiteness of benighted snow," which almost completes this feeling of nothingness that is throughout the poem.
The final stanza tells what truly scares man. It is not the field with weeds and stubble, nor is it the loneliness that is felt throughout the piece. It is the emptiness of meaning that scares man and this is not found out in nature, but it is in man's mind and that is where true fear comes from.
The poem is quite dark, but I think that his idea was to show that the world is not a lonely place, but the loneliness is within each person and unless one can find meaning to their life, they will live in fear of never finding their true purpose.
AmyN
Work Cited
Frost, Robert. "Desert Places." The Bedford Anthology. 1934/1969. P. 594. Print
In the first stanza, Frost uses "snow falling" and "night falling" to heighten one's perception. It is essential that the light from the snow falling shows the darkness descending on the land. It sets up this eerie perception, because the light from the snow is not enough to truly see the world. Also in this stanza we have a "field," but it is not a natural field because the field has "weeds" and "stubble" coming up, which means that it is man made or a cultivated field. These two contrasts of "weeds" and "stubble" show how nature will reclaim that which man has taken over.
In the second stanza we get animals being "smothered in their lairs" and "absent-spirited" which are meant to signify the concept of death and that one is lonely and not in touch with nature.
The third stanza repeats the concept of "lonely." This lonely and loneliness adds to the dark feeling of the poem and how one is out of touch with the natural world, which means too that they are out of touch with themselves. This stanza also has the snow annihilating everything, "A blanker whiteness of benighted snow," which almost completes this feeling of nothingness that is throughout the poem.
The final stanza tells what truly scares man. It is not the field with weeds and stubble, nor is it the loneliness that is felt throughout the piece. It is the emptiness of meaning that scares man and this is not found out in nature, but it is in man's mind and that is where true fear comes from.
The poem is quite dark, but I think that his idea was to show that the world is not a lonely place, but the loneliness is within each person and unless one can find meaning to their life, they will live in fear of never finding their true purpose.
AmyN
Work Cited
Frost, Robert. "Desert Places." The Bedford Anthology. 1934/1969. P. 594. Print
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