Destiny is preordained; an inevitable course of events that are beyond human power or control. In the novels, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton and Their Eye Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, destiny has laid out Ethan and Janie’s lives. Even though destiny’s events are inevitable, there are different outcomes depending on the person. Ethan is a man afraid to change anything in his life, whereas, Janie fights against destiny not wanting her life to remain as it is. Paths have been set out for Ethan Frome and Janie Crawford; whether they choose to go on a certain path is up to them; some paths that destiny had presented are loneliness, love, and imprisonment. The path of loneliness is one of the paths presented to both Ethan and Janie by destiny.
Ethan journeys on the paths of loneliness throughout most of the novel. “After the mortal silence of his long imprisonment Zeena’s volubility was music in her ears” (Wharton 63).
While Ethan’s mother gets sick, she begins to keep to herself so he ends up having no one to talk to. He is alone even with his mother by his side. He wants a companion who would get rid of the loneliness.
Zeena, at first, is a lively girl, similar to Mattie. He is not in love with Zeena, but when she is about to leave after his mother’s funeral, he knows that he is going to be left alone. He needs someone in his life; it does not matter who it is, just as long as it keeps the loneliness away. “He was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm” (Wharton 64).
The Essay on Ethan Frome Mattie Zeena Life
Ethan Frome The novel Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, is a wonderfully written novel that leaves the reader both depressed and awakened with the loneliness life often holds. Wharton, throughout the book, uses a lot of obvious imagery to allude to her own depressing life. Uses of sexual metaphors, symbols of being trapped and alone, and a generally gloomy setting make for a very meaningful ...
Loneliness is what he wanted to get rid of. At first, he finds something in Zeena that makes him think that she is the one that will keep it away. The dread of being left alone during the long winter makes him go for the first thing that keeps him happy. In the end, marrying Zeena leads him to the loneliness he tries to avoid. She becomes “stricken” just like Ethan’s mother quiet and reserve. Destiny tries to get Janie onto the path and succeeds.
.”.. Everybody got pointed out there wasn’t nobody left except a real dark little girl with long hair… .” (Hurston 9).
This quote is of Janie as a child, after she takes a picture with the white people that her grandmother cares for. She does not know that she is colored.
In the picture that is taken, she is the only one that looks different. When someone looks at that the picture, they can notice that she is not part the family. She looks different because she is too light skinned and she does not fit in with the white folk because she is too dark. “So it was just a great expanse of black mud” (Hurston 191).
Her first husband does not care about her or love her. She has no connection with him and does not find the companionship that she wants to have.
First, she thinks that Jody is her escape from the life with Logan but as soon as he gains power, she has no one. He only wants her as an ornament. Then Teacake comes along and she finds that he is the one that will fill the emptiness in her life. But he is taken away by the hands of death. After Teacake dies, the place she lives in is just an empty space.
She does not have the company of her love. In the end, she is not completely alone, she has her best friend, but Phoebe can not fill up the space that is missing. They were destined to find love one way or another; whether it was obtainable was up to them. “For the first time they would be alone together indoors, and they would sit there, one on each side of the stove, like a married couple, he in his stocking feet and smoking his pipe, she laughing and talking in that funny way she had, which was always as new to him as if her had never heard her before” (Wharton 62).
The Essay on Characterization Ethan Frome Mattie Zeena Life
Characterization-Ethan Frome Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is a novel based on a man named Ethan Frome who lives a life of unhappiness because of his marriage with his wife. This novel takes place in Starkfield, Massachusetts during the winter. Ethan Frome is a man of many virtuous qualities and numerous defects. Ethan pursues a life of euphoria and a future of an well-educated man. His intentions ...
Zeena has left the house, leaving Mattie and Ethan alone.
Ethan dreams of what it can be like to be with Mattie, alone, like a married couple. They end up not doing anything they want to do because everything that they do reminds them of Zeena. “They had never before allowed their inclination so openly and Ethan for a moment had the illusion that he was a free man, wooing the girl he meant to marry” (Wharton 140).
Because of Zeena, Ethan is not able to do anything. At the moment he has nothing lose but Mattie. He has wished nothing but to be with Mattie.
While he is spending the last moments with her, he feels like he is courting Mattie. He has been in love with Mattie for quite some time. He takes a chance and makes little pit stops to spend more time with her. He is stuck with Zeena because he is obligated to her.
He has a responsibility to take care of Zeena. Knowing this, Ethan and Mattie decide to kill themselves, so that they can stay together in death, but it did not turn out the way they want it to turn out. Now he lives with two old, grumpy women. Throughout Janie’s life, she tries to find true love and she finally does through Teacake. “That was the beginning of things” (Hurston 107).
Her life with Teacake was a new start. She experiences things that she has never done with anyone else. “He done taught me maiden language all over” (Hurston 115).
She forgets the maiden language while she is with Jody but being with Teacake taught her how to speak it again.
“He looked like the love thoughts of women. He could be a bee to a blossom… .” (Hurston 106).
She is physically attracted to Teacake.
He is everything she wants in a man. He is like the perfect man for women. Whatever lies ahead of Ethan and Janie leads to the path of imprisonment. Ethan has never escaped from his life in Starkfield. “He feels as if he is a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished” (Wharton 134).
The Essay on Edith Wharton Ethan Mattie Zeena
Ethan Frome: Fantasy Is An Escape From Ethan Frome: Fantasy Is An Escape From Winter Ethan Frome: Fantasy is an Escape From Winter Ethan Frome, the title character of Edith Wharton's tragic novel, lives in his own world of silence, where he replaces his scarcity of words with images and fantasies. There is striking symbolism in the imagery, predominantly that of winter which connotes frigidity, ...
Zeena and his family are what imprisoned him long ago.
His escape is with Mattie but he knows that no matter what, he cannot escape from Starkfield. “Ethan usually believes that the sprits of the graveyard seem to call out to him ‘we never got away how could you?’ ” (Wharton 50).
People before him have tried to get away but they are not able to. It is his destiny to live the rest of his life in Starkfield with Mattie and Zeena. Janie did not just sit down and let herself be imprisoned in her own world, she wants to walk outside and experience life to the fullest. “Janie did what she had never done before, that is, trust herself into the conversation” (Hurston 70).
Jody never lets her talk in any of the town folk’s conversation. So when she has a chance, she takes it and talks to her hearts content. She does not just sit down and let herself be ruled she wanted to do something so she did. “Thank yuh fun yo’ compliments, but mah wife don’t kno nothin’ ’bout no speech makin’… Ah never married her for nothin’ lak dat. She’s uh woman and her place is in de home” Hurston (40-41).
Jody tells everyone that she is just a pretty piece of ornament and that her place is only at the home with the chickens. He tries to control her but in the end she is free of him. He imprisoned her for his own ambition. Destiny has put Ethan Frome and Janie Crawford on the paths of loneliness, love, and imprisonment. They have been through many trials.
In the end, Ethan tries to fight off destiny but destiny has it in for him. He is destined to live in Starkfield with two old women. Janie has always fought off what is destined for her, but destiny is inevitable. Destiny cannot be beat, it is the one thing that is set forth and whether someone fights it will never change.
