A Study On The Anti-Puritanism In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

Most critics considered Wharton as a novelist of manners.There surprisingly have been few studies concerning the author's moral aspect,especially her obvious anti-Puritan tendency,which was sharply contrast to her elite social background.This thesis aims to probe into Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome,investigating in depth Wharton's resistance to the harsh and rigid Puritan doctrines.The Puritan ideology was manifested as predestination or determinism in Ethan Frome.The Puritan tenet of predestination was first reflected in the depiction of the harsh natural environment and the isolated social environment.The Starkfield everlasting harsh winter days froze human free will and vanished their hope for the future.The hero Ethan was defeated by the cruel winter both in spirit and flesh.He looked as if he was already dead and in hell.The hero Ethan's inescapable dark fate bore strong sense of predestination.Ethan's family was haunted by God's punishment.His mother became insane,his wife Zeena got hypochondriasis and became cruel and complained,even the young,outgoing Mattie was transformed into a deformed,whining witch.Ethan's multiple struggles with fate ended in failure.The idea of predestination culminated in the failed attempt of suicide of Ethan and Mattie.Their failed attempt of suicide further underlined the ineffectuality of human will,their lack of control of their own fate.Wharton revisited Puritanism not to recreate Puritan ethic standard but to resist or rebuke it.Wharton attributed Ethan's dark fate to the deep-rooted value of predestination and the rigid Puritanical responsibility.The Puritan value of predestination mold people's thought and conduct.The Puritans firmly believed that human was unable to change their predestined fate.The rigid,harsh Puritan doctrine of predestination deprived human strength and courage in pursuit of love and aspirations.Ethan's strong sense of Puritanical duty led to his futile sacrifice of aspirations and failed attempt to escape from his loveless,asexual,infertile marriage.Wharton also violently attacked Puritanical marriage and the Puritan restrictions to female sexual vitality and deprivation of sexual desire by depicting Ethan's tragic romantic relationship with Mattie.