Ethan Frome - Prologue
Characters
Is shown to be reserved and isolated
It is indicated that he was not always like this
Ethan is disfigured
Result of a "smash up"
Creates a sense of mystery, urges the reader to find out what happened
Stiff Face
Creates a distant and unrelatable image
Crippled body
Reflects his psychological state
Ethan is not a bad or nasty man
Shown when he rides the narrator 10 miles to his destination in a snowstorm
Described by the narrator as "The Most Striking" and "The Ruin Of a Man"
Narrator
Creates and unbiased view of Frome that wouldn't be possible with a resident of starkfield
Is used to create a phsychological distance between the reader and Frome
Although the narrator is thought to be male, his name nor gender is revealed
Male
May reflect wharton as a character
Structure
Structural Gap
As the story has already happened the reader is given a sense of finality
Gives hints as to what has happened, what is going to happen and what the reader is going to find out
Wharton starts the novel near the end of the chonological storyline
Imagery
Frome's Farmhouse
Old and dilapidated
Gives sense that nothing can survive the harsh climate unscathed.
Reflects ethan as a whole
"In the diminished dwelling the image of [Frome's] own shrunken body"
Starkfield
Harsh climate
Wharton pays particular attention to show how the climate has effected the residents
Snow and Ice
Shows a harsh climate that is cut off from the community
Motif's to set a desolate atmosphere
The Name gives a bleak image and mood already
Ethan Frome
Ethan's emotional side reflects that of starkfields physical environment
Is described as an incarnation of the climate (see cold, bleak)
