The way Conrad and Wharton shape our response to their novellas.
A fundamental difference between the two novellas is the different worlds in which their story is set. Wharton uses the appropriate name of, ‘Starkfield’ where Ethan’s barren farm is situated. This already disheartening name of the town builds up the atmosphere of the bleak life which Ethan lives. This is heightened in comparison to Freya who lives in prosperity and relaxes in exquisite tropical islands with picturesque waters. Jasper and Freya have a chance to escape with the ‘Bonito’ but Ethan and Mattie have nothing. Conrad sets his world in, “a particularly calm and cloudless spot as a rule.” He portrays the idyllic place in which Jasper and Freya live giving a sense of freedom. Conrad uses this imagery to give a sense of magic and then destroys it to make the place seem spiritless with the two lovers split and lost from each other’s company.
Jasper and Ethan are the two main male roles in the novellas; however they both are very different characters. This is partly because of the different way they live their lives and the worlds they live in. Ethan is a lot more hesitant and less self-assured than Jasper. Ethan finds it hard to tell Mattie his love for her until very near the end of the book. However Ethan does battle with his own wife Zeena to keep Mattie with him which is courageous and shows how devoted he is to her which is admirable. He knows what he wants to say but finds it very hard. Ethan is also a very poor person and has no escape from his poverty described as, “there was no way out-none.” Conrad gives this fact a realisation throughout the book. Ethan is described as a, “prisoner for life,” as he can’t get away from his position and does not have the money, even suicide seems a better option for Ethan and Mattie. This is compared to Jasper who is a captain of a brig who has hope of achievement and reaches and has the freedom of the ocean with him. However Jasper has his head in the clouds and is not down to earth about the situation. When Conrad talks about Jasper he becomes very poetical,
The Essay on Ethan Frome Affair With Mattie
Everybody has tragic flaws. Some of the decisions that we make in life have an everlasting impact. Edith Wharton, author of Ethan Frome, writes about Ethan Frome, a man troubled by his own decisions. Ethan, married to Zeena Frome, has an affair with Zeena s cousin, Mattie Silver, leaving him stranded between the two. In his effort to have his clandestine affair with Mattie and cover up so Zeena ...
“Jasper had gone straight to the balustrade. The sky was full of stars, and in the blue velvety night the cove below had a denser blackness, in which the riding-lights of the brig and of the gunboat glimmered redly, like suspended sparks,”
He uses this colourful style to show Jasper’s character in a dreamlike world. When his brig is destroyed and he is away from Freya he makes no attempt to get back to her and becomes a wasted man. When Freya’s father goes to Jasper, after the brig was destroyed, and tries to get Jasper to come to her jasper is described as, “eyes sunk an inch into his head; nothing but skin on the bones of his face, a skeleton in white clothes.”Conrad shapes are response to jasper’s outcome by describing him in this way, showing he is no longer the captain loved by a beautiful girl any more. Jasper becomes a ghost of himself and has no care in the world. Even when given the chance he does not go back. By contrast, Ethan would almost definitely have done anything to be with Mattie.
Conrad’s Freya, named after a goddess, is described when first introduced to the reader:
“The oval of her face was perfect; and within that fascinating frame the most happy disposing of line and feature, with an admirable complexion, gave an impression of health, strength, and what I might call unconscious self-confidence”
Conrad makes a grand, theatrical female than the compares to simple Mattie which Wharton presents as a timid and vulnerable girl. However they deal with their situations very differently and they are brought up very differently. Mattie is very poor and is a maid in Ethan’s house. She is very young but Ethan falls in love with this energetic girl. Mattie loves Ethan and only wants to have a simple life with the person she loves; she feels that Ethan and she could never really live together away from everyone and that she could not live without him. So Mattie decides she wants to die with him than never be with him again. They talk about sledging into an elm tree and Mattie says she wants to do it,” so ‘t we’d never have to leave each other anymore.”Wharton shows how strong their love is and that the thought of leaving each other is devastating. However Freya falls in love with a handsome man with an impressive brig. But when the brig is destroyed and their escape is ruined she does not try to get to Jasper, she just wastes away and gives up and the doctors say she had anaemia but the narrator really knows that is not true. He says to Old Nelson, “don’t you see she died because if it.” She had a dream in her head to run away with Jasper on the ‘bonito,’ Jasper’s brig, but this is destroyed and she cannot handle it. Freya could have gone to find Jasper to be with him but decided against it, so she just wasted away in the end because of being separated from Jasper and the Brig which signified there love and escape.
The Term Paper on Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad: An Innovator in British Literature Joseph Conrads innovative literature is influenced by his experiences in traveling to foreign countries around the world. Conrads literature consists of the various styles of techniques he uses to display his well-recognized work as British literature. His prose style, varying from eloquently sensuous to bare and astringent, keeps the reader in ...
Heemskirk is seen to be quite a comical character in Freya of the Seven Isles, although this is not in his character but in the way he looks and how this contrasts to his character. He is a Dutch naval officer with a malicious manner but the way Conrad describes his behaviour after being slapped by Freya is hilarious. Believing him to have a toothache her father:
“seized the poor sufferer by the arm and forced him gently onwards to the very bed, on which Heemskirk, in a renewed access of rage, flung himself down with such force that he rebounded from the mattress to the height of nearly a foot.”
Conrad shows Heemskirk as a clown who gives the reader no notion of his potential danger. This also makes the fact that in the end Heemskirk captures the Bonito ironic because he was the humorous person. Jasper and Freya laugh at Heemskirk throughout the novella and he wants revenge on them, which he does get as he gets the last laugh. He is called an, “active and zealous officer,” for capturing the Bonito claiming it trades weapons. After doing, this he also ruins Jasper and Freya’s love and Heemskirk says himself, “when you hear of Lieutenant Heemskirk in the future that name won’t bring a smile on your lips, I swear.” Conrad shows Heemskirk as a real villain and illustrates him as an ugly man; however I can sympathise with him as he has no love and just wants to be with the young beautiful and charismatic girl Freya. However he is rejected and uses drastic actions to fulfil his anger.
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 ...
The endings of both novellas are extremely tragic. For Jasper and Freya, they lose their key to love and escape, the ‘Bonito.’ They make no effort to get back to each other and in the end Freya gives up and dies rather melodramatically and Conrad describes Jasper as looking, “as though he would never laugh again.” Conrad’s tragic ending turns what used to be an exquisite tropical place, where there are no clouds as a rule and the water is perfect into a desolate and isolated place with two misplaced lives and vanished love. Their romantic hope is ruined, destroyed and lost forever. In the end of Ethan Frome, Mattie and Ethan survive, not only having to live with Zeena but with Mattie as a cripple and left to be in a distressing, ‘ménage á trois.’ Their lives are so traumatic and depressing that they see suicide as a better option but this however only paralyses Mattie, so their lives become even worse. Wharton creates a sad image when Ethan, Mattie and Zeena are describes as, “all shut up there ‘n that one kitchen,” this makes the story very tragic that even after the accident Ethan and Mattie still can’t live together alone. Ethan, described as a, “shadow of a man,” has lost his will to even try to get out.
Freya of the Seven Isles is a more romantic and optimistic novella throughout the book, with Jasper day-dreaming about Freya, though destroyed by the tragic ending. Jasper and Freya have hope of escape but in the end don’t have the power to use it, they could have been able to make a new way of living together if they had the strength and power of love which Ethan and Mattie had. Ethan Frome is a more naturalistic book and is meaningful and depressing which shows events that happen to people and how the effect of poverty can destroy peoples’ lives in many ways. Their love was strong but they were not able to escape as, “there ain’t a dime to spare at the Frome’s.” Both these tragic endings make the books very powerful and significant as they offer a strong sense of morality. They fit in to what Aristotle called ‘catharsis,’ the abolition of the emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, particularly highlighted through tragedy. Both Conrad and Wharton form our response of their writing using tragic qualities that make us believe that their outcome is depressing and open our minds to the reality of what could happen, how life can always go wrong if the wrong decisions are made.
The Term Paper on Ethan Frome The Destruction Of Life
Ethan Frome The Destruction of Life (The Un forbidden Love Affair) This tragic book tells a story of yet another forbidden pair of lovers, but separates itself from other stories such as these with its vivid imagery. The setting of the book and the characters themselves share the same traits sullen, silent, somewhat cold and unfriendly. Edith Wharton uses these images to portray each character, ...
