FREE ESSAY ON ETHAN FROME

ETHAN FROME

Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome written by Edith Wharton in 1905 is a novel about the dilemmas of a poor New
England farmer named Ethan Frome, his wife Zeena, and Zeena's cousin, Mattie Silver. The
first person narrator, an engineer, comes to the town of Starkfield and becomes curious
about the crippled, taciturn Ethan Frome. The tragic consequences of Ethan's unhappy
marriage and forbidden love are revealed in a flashback to twenty-four years before the
narrators arrival in Starkfield. In 1992, a movie was made of Ethan Frome which kept this
plot in tact but included a number of changes in how the story was narrated and in some
of the details about the characters and the plot. Some of the changes were effective;
others were not so effective. Some of these changes didn't even make that much of an
effect on the way the movie was compared with the book.
One of these changes would have to be that the narrator was an engineer in the book and
in the movie he was a minister. This change was not that big of a deal. This seems like
it wouldn't really make that much of a difference. In the movie they didn't go into that
much detail about before the accident so it mad no difference if the narrator was an
engineer or a minister. Either way it would have made no difference if he was a bartender
or an exotic dancer. It may or may not have made the story a little more interesting, but
who really cares what the narrator's occupation is.
Some of the changes in the book seemed to make an enormous change, some were good and
others were bad. The good change seemed to make the movie take another path that the book
never took. In the movie the minister sees that the whole town is ostracizing Ethan
Frome, but in the book he never even realizes that there is nothing going on and beside
the cripple the town seems fine. This change seems to make the movie more interesting,
because it sound like the Minister in the movie has a good idea of what may have
happened, that maybe the town doesn't seem to like him after this accident. In the book
when we read it we are to think the engineer has no idea about what really happened, we
are to believe that the engineer thinks that this is some kind birth defect.
One other change made another good change. When Mattie Silver tried to kill herself in
the barn by eating rat poison. This change is also a good one, it makes the movie
watchers believe that Matiie Silver may have some mental problems. The book was boring
and added no sex or any mystery or thrills. The movie added that special stuff and took
away the scenes that made no sense and were not worth the film. The last change made this
movie a Hollywood movie. It was the sex scene, it seemed to attract viewers eyes and made
them watch the whole movie. In the book they didn't have sex but it didn't make that much
difference if they did or didn't do it. It was solely for entertainment's purpose.
In conclusion I think some of the changes in this movie were in the best interest of the
movie, and the entertainment world. The changes made seemed to make the movie more
interesting and more socially cool. Some of the scenes added helped its sex appeal and
helped it become a Hollywood movie.
Bibliography
none, written by me!