I have not read the novella, so I'm a bit confused by the ending of this otherwise excellent movie. Can anyone help explain it a little?
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I love the book, and if you clarify what confused you I would love to help you out. Was it the suicide?
"Your what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew" Annie Hall
Ethan and Mattie, trapped by the circumstances and finding no way out, decide to commit suicide by sliding down the hill and crashing into the tree. Unfortunately, both of them survive, leaving Ethan crippled and Mattie paralyzed. In the book, (the movie doesn't show it as well,) Mattie becomes bitter, ugly, and whiny, worse than Zeena, but she must live with the Fromes for the rest of her life, and Ethan must watch her deteriorate. That is the tragedy of the story.
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Actually in Calvinsim, your afterlife is predetermined before you are even born. Therefore, Ethan Frome had no control over his actions, according to you. If you believe in free will whatsoever, then Frome made a choice and then had to live with the consequences. However that does not make him an unsympathetic character. Unless you believe in Calvinism.
shareActually in contrast to what everyone else has said. The book does indeed suck.
sharei agree wholeheartedly
shareI really enjoyed reading the book, but haven't seen the film yet.
I'm sure the book does not suck!
It's just a horrible love story, with no happy ending. That's not bad, that's life!
''It's just a horrible love story, with no happy ending. That's not bad, that's life!''
exactly the book was a dose of reality, too many people were expecting a meg ryan/mila kunis type ending
I liked the book (which I read first before seeing the movie), although it is terribly sad.
shareeh. I fell like I'm one of the only people who is right in the middle here about the book, I didn't love it, but didn't hate it. I just though it was ok, but only if u read it in an english class, b/c then u can talk about symbols, characterization etc. but i definitely wouldn't read this on my own...
and idk about the movie, I haven't seen it and have been warned against seeing it
I think all of you missed the point of the novella (if you've read it)
We studied this in a college lit class and its based on Irony.
The novella is mostly a flast back as the living situation of Ethan and the 2 women is explained. In the beginning, the wife is bitter towards Ethan and feels she has no purpose in life. When the young cousin comes to visit, Ethan restrains his attraction but the young cousin returns his favor.
Throughout the story, you are to assume that the old bitter woman in the corner (in teh beginning) is the wife and the busy woman is the cousin but in reality, the roles are reversed as after the cousin is crippled, the wife finds a purpose as she finally has someone to wait on and take care of (even though she never knows the true cause or reason behind the "accident".
This novella was NOT a love story by any means.
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In general I agree with you, however I don't see how you can say that it is not a love story. It is not primarily a love story, it is clearly a tragedy, but forbidden love and betrayal are central themes. As they are in many of Wharton's novels.
shareThe wife is a 'rescuer narcissist' who finds purpose and meaning in life only when she has an opportunity to display how nurturing and forgiving she is.
The visitor mistakes the invalid woman for the presumably sickly wife when in fact she is the formerly vibrant Mattie.
Just to add my two cents, if anyone cares, this is my favorite book of all-time. I read it Junior year in high school, and have re-read it (and re-watched the movie) many, many times.
Maybe because I love dark New England winters! I'm the only one!
My English teacher told us not to call Zeena a 'bitch.'
Outta the way! I'm catching the next pimpmobile out of this place!
haha I thought that was funny Merkin, but I just read this book this summer for my English class and I didn't think it was horrible, Ethan just made me mad through the whole book and I kept wanting to throw it across the room. We just watched the movie to compare and contrast. If you haven't read the book then Savdbygrce has given the best explination of it. If you haven't read it I think you should. It's only about 80 pages but goes into more depth than the movie does (as most books do). It's really not that bad of a read either.
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Wow, if it had not been for the answers to the original post, I would never have realized that Mattie & Ethan were committing suicide by running into a tree. I know she said she didn't ever want to leave that mountain, but I thought this was a foreshadowing of her death. The next thing I know pieces of sled were flying up in the air, which I thought was a big cop out, because I was really wondering how the accident would happen. Why in the world would they not think about the possibility that running into a tree would only injure one or both of them? Or why not go out west like Ethan suggested? They had only been together a few times at most-would it have been so hard to just try to live without each other? I felt bad that Ethan got railroaded into such an unhappy marriage, but it felt a little like he took advantage of that young girl's innocence.
shareOne answer to why they did not just run off out West is answered in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, also a good movie, written during the same era. So was Dreiser's An American Tragedy, which dealt with some of the same themes. In America it was very slowly becoming possible to think of running off and re-inventing one's self away from the strictures of one's circumstances of birth, but the economy was not quite there yet.
How much of the later loosening of society's strictures (social approval) was due to the economy becoming more urban and robust just a few years later? I'm not an economist so I may be phrasing this stuff wrong. Dreiser disapproved of people running off and made his characters end up not being able to make a go of it financially if they took that step. Wharton did too.
Just 14 years after Ethan Frome was written, I guess Dreiser's character in An American Tragedy (also a great movie, named A Place in the Sun with Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift) Montgomery Clift was *almost* able to make a go of it, forget where he came from and his conscience and grab the brass ring based on his intellect, talent, charm, and wits. In the same year, 1925, Fitzgerald's Gatzby was able to make a go of it financially and then some.
But what was lost morally in doing so? These authors were (I'm also not an English teacher, just happened to have read about this re: Dreiser at some point) trying to say something about all of USA society wanting to get free of the strictures of their birth circumstances and re-invent themselves, sometimes running off from responsibilities.
In my opinion, that's why Ethan and Mattie could not have just run off and gone out West. In the book, Ethan figures out that he couldn't make a go of it financially. I think this is because the economy was still too hardscrabble and agrarian. Ethan had to wait three weeks for payment from Hale. Dreiser's character, instead, pulled a Janet Leigh in Psycho and stole from his employer to finance his getaway. I won't tell you how it ended up, but do yourself a favor and watch the movies DON'T read Dreiser.
All of that said, the part I enjoyed most about Ethan Frome is that Zeena danged well could have gotten off her hiney and done for herself all that time. Ethan and Mattie got their revenge in a sick way by becoming the invalids. I wish Ethan had thought of a way to make Zeena admit she wasn't that sick to begin with, and maybe Zeena could have become happy and warm like Mattie. I know one or two people like Zeena. I wonder if I would ever have the guts to call their bluffs and say you aren't that sick; you can too get up and move around? and get a job?