Ethan Frome - Tragic Hero | Assignment

ETHAN FROME:
TRAGIC HERO
STUDENT DETAILS
2020

ETHAN FROME: TRAGIC HERO 1
Ethan Frome: Tragic Hero
Ethan Frome, a character of the novel written by Edith Wharton, an American Author,
represents a modern tragic hero, who is a common and an ordinary man and has lived a
miserable life. Ethan’s studies hampered due to the death of his father, as he was required to
stay at home and take care of his mother, but due to her illness he lost his mother too. To
overcome his loneliness, he marries Zeena who was a caretaker for his mother. The decision
of marrying with Zeena was a flawed decision for Ethan (Wharton 22). The essay focuses on
analysing the character of Ethan Frome and identifying the difference between classical and
modern tragic hero.
Ethan finds an understanding between him and Mattie (cousin of Zeena) but thinks that it
would be unfair with Zeena, if he expresses his feelings for Mattie, therefore, he decides to
stay quiet. But when Zeena tells Ethan that Mattie has to leave the house because her
condition is going worse with the time and a hired girl is coming to take care of Zeena. Then,
to avoid the situation Ethan and Mattie decides to attempt suicide so that they can be free
from their miserable lives, but the flawed tragic decision make then a prisoner of the
circumstances, as they failed and the story does not end with a happy ending, as the crippled
Ethan, Mattie suffering from a spinal disease and Zeena, all are living under a single roof as
an unhappy family (Wharton 78). Therefore, the story details that the flawed tragic decisions
result in the downfall of the hero and even results in a sad ending. Ethan serves a sense of
being of hero by staying beside Zeena to take care of her, sacrificed hopes and dreams for
taking care of his mother, and continues to live his life with dissatisfaction. But the decisions
taken by Ethan are proof that the flaws in the decision of tragic hero result in the unhappy
ending of the story or his life.