In five pages this paper compares how innocence is portrayed and how it is lost through experience in these two novels by Edith Wharton. There are two sources cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: D0_GSEfrome.rtf
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of Wharton go through experiences which very realistically impact that sense of innocence. Her characters are rich and complex, and offer readers a peek inside the human condition from
a perspective that is both intensely fascinating yet tragic at the same time. Ethan Frome is a bleak and
sad story which takes place in an appropriately bleak landscape. The landscape in this story actually serves to reinforce the bleak state of mind of the characters.
Ethan "seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface...[living]
in a depth of moral isolation too remote for casual access" (Wharton, 1998, p. 14-15).
Ethan is married to Zeena, and although they cant stand each other, she was available and so he married her. However, Ethan actually loves Mattie,
but they believe they cannot be together, and therefore eventually try to commit suicide together, although this too fails (just like everything else in their lives).
As bleak and hopeless as this story is, we are also able to see that Mattie and Ethan genuinely do love each other, and
that they are happy when they are together. So then, it is through this relationship that we see examples of innocence in both characters, as they together discover love
in their lives. Even though these characters are unable to be together and even though they live tragic lives, their love is the one true and happy thing in