The Wicked Witch and Snow White Essay -- essays papers

The Wicked Witch and Snow WhiteEdith Wharton presents two unforgettable instances in her novel, Ethan Frome. The reader is presented with Mattie Silver who is young, and good-natured, and Zeena Frome, who is a bitter hypochondriac 7 years her husbands senior. Upon a first inspection, Zeena Frome and Mattie Silver of Edith Whartons Ethan Frome seem to be extreme opposites in every respect, exclusively upon walking(prenominal) scrutiny, one finds though they are indeed different in character, though they eventually share great similarities. Zeena and Matties differences in show and character, but similarity of fate, all contribute to the theme of the novel which is that one cannot parry the social class one is born in.Edith Wharton first describes Zeena in Chapter II as a woman who is but 37 years old, save appears more elderly than her biological age. Zeena is associated with the dimness and grey of the winter ornament of Ethan Frome. There is no beauty or warmth coupled with the character of Zeena Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand gulp a quilted counterpane to her flat breast The light draw out of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, heighten fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its ring of crimping pins. Mattie Silver, on the other hand, is associated with what atomic light and warmth there is in the cold setting of the novel. Wharton describes Mattie as taller, fuller, more womanly in shape and motion. She goes to relate Matties appearance on that equal page She held the light and it drew out with the equivalent distinctness her slim young throat and th... ...an was suffocated with the sense of well-being.Edith Wharton presents a unrelenting contrast of the feelings Zeena and Mattie inspire in the man they care most for. Zeena inspires irritation, awkwardness, and hatred while Mattie promo tes eloquence, and feelings of well-being.Wharton was an avid social critic. She believed that it was difficult, if not impossible, to escape from the social and scotch class one was born in. None of her other novels that were social critiques such(prenominal) as The House of Mirth, or Custom of the Country, portray this belief as sharply as Ethan Frome. Although Mattie was a beautiful, friendly young woman, she was destined to the same fate that Zeena was destined to because she had been born into the same social-economic class. BibliographyWORKS CITEDWharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. Evanston, Ill McDougal Little, 1997.