Consider this line from Florence + The Machine's "Cosmic Love": 'I was in the darkness, so darkness I became'. Is this true? Do one's environs merely reflect the inner soul, or do they dictate emotions and sentiments?
Using the work Ethan Frome, defend the thesis that surroundings and circumstances can alter a character's feelings and expressions. First, take into account the 'darkness' in Wharton's own life that led her to create a triumvirate of sallow and anemic characters caught in a triangle of frustrated love. Use a biography located on Bloom's Literary Reference (a good example: http://www.fofweb.com/Lit/default.asp?ItemID=WE54). Next, focus on a single character and examine how the harsh New England landscape has also worked to drag him or her into a abyss of darkness.
Posted by Bracey and Alexander Saturday, December 4th 2010
When life is brought into the world, the newly born usually fell safest in their mother’s arms. The child relaxes in his or her parent’s arms because it is the only area that seems familiar to them, but if a child is unhappy in another’s arms or in a crib he or she will get a parents attention by crying or doing another action to get the parents attention. Although the majority of adults would love to go running right back to their parents as soon as something is different, this is not how we were brought up. All adults have been taught to cope and deal with their surrounds, adjusting to what is best. For Ethan, in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, this is no different. Ethan had to quickly learn how to deal with his parent’s farm in order to continue living. Edith, just like her character, had a hard time fitting into society. By her late twenties, Edith began having mental breakdowns, possibly caused by her depression. All of this only began five years after she got married. Although she eventually divorced, her life was focused in the frigid northeast driving Edith inside. Ethan, in turn, was also confined to living in the northeast because of his parent’s farm. He allowed himself to live the menial life of a farmer because he was simply trying to keep things going. But Ethan was not aware of this entrapment; “all the long misery of his baffled past, of his youth of failure, hardship and vain effort” encircled Ethan in this hole that Mattie was soon able to illuminate. Mattie brought passion and lust back into his life when she first came to town, as if she had shown a light into the hole. When she goes to leave Ethan begins to panic and realize how unhappy he is in his marriage. Although he was unable to run back into his parent’s arms, “Ethan, for a moment, had the illusion that he was a free man, wooing the girl he meant to marry” (122). He allowed the comforting thought of “wooing” and “marry[ing]” Mattie fulfill his passion and light up the hole he had been stuck in. Because he had been stuck on the same farm, Ethan found comfort in the slight economic stability and the fact that it was his home growing up. His feelings are exposed when his wife attempts to make Mattie leave because he felt as if Zeena “meant to take [away] the one thing that made up for all the others.” (95) Mattie changed Ethan’s climate exposing his true feelings and the abyss that Zeena had only pushed him into. Although all of this is reversed when Mattie and Ethan’s attempted suicide fails.
ReplyDeleteWaking up at seven in the morning and looking outside the window, one sees the wind blowing and rain falling from the clouds. While deciding what one is going to wear to school, most people are going to choose something dark such as a black instead of choosing a bright pink top to wear to school that day. Why? Because it is dark outside and this unconsciously had an effect on many small things including what color top one is going to wear that day. Therefore, the environment definitely has an effect on one's emotions, which can be seen in one's daily life as well as in the life of Wharton. Wharton faced a "dark" period in her own marriage, which concluded in a divorce. Wharton also faced periods of depression throughout her life, which may have been a result of the hostile winters of Massachusetts along with the lack of sunlight in the area. This sunset in Wharton's life may have encouraged her to create characters, who are an anomaly to society. Ethan, a character from Wharton's Ethan Frome, is the epitome one who lives a "dark" life. Initially, when Zeena entered the life of Ethan, Ethan saw her as the sunlight entering his life because she cared for his mother. The thought of "her departure" (61)created a "chill" (61) within him after the loss of his mother and he felt that he could not to bear "lonely farmhouses in the neighborhood" (61). Ethan decided to marry Zeena because of the isolation in the area as a result of the cold weather. However, after he married her, Ethan realized that this was a mistake because they do not love each other. After a long time, Ethan finally finds the love of his life, Mattie, but he cannot abandon Zeena because he knows that she "came to take care of his mother"(60), and he cannot abandon her in the time when she faces "sickliness" (60). Therefore, a victim of circumstances and maybe even the weather, Ethan attempts to commit suicide with his love, Mattie, and fails, which causes him to live a life full of disabilities, now both mentally and physically. Because of the hostility of the environment and the "light-less" weather, Ethan chose a companion in haste, which ended up causing more harm to him rather than helping him.
ReplyDeleteOutside of her influential and outstanding works, Edith Wharton lived a dark, depressing lifestyle. Marring a man for social status but no love or intellectual connection, Wharton was very unhappy and even had an affair for 3 years before her and her husband divorced. This conflict within her own life is also portrayed in her novel, Ethan Frome, through the tenuous relationship between Ethan and Zeena. This specific work in Wharton’s collection of narratives is heavily influenced by the surrounding environment, and its effects on the character’s mood and demeanor. After Wharton’s father died, she became fascinated with architecture and design, and even wrote the book, “The Decoration of Houses.” She began designing and administered the construction of her new home, “The Mount,” in Massachusetts. Because of these events within her life, Wharton created the main theme of the conflict between societal mores and the pursuit of happiness within “Ethan Frome”.
ReplyDeleteIn Foster’s novel,” How To Read Literature Like a Professor”, there is an entire chapter dedicated to Geography Matters…The landscape of a specific scene not only reveals the author’s imagery but also portrays themes, symbols, plot, and characterization. “Literary geography is typically about humans inhabiting spaces, and at the same time the spaces that inhabit humans. Geography is setting but it’s also psychology, attitude, finance, industry-anything that place can forge in the people who live there,” (Foster 165-166) which is clearly seen in “Ethan Frome.”
As the novel begins, the reader gets a feel for Wharton’s use of scenery and landscape to portray her characters, specifically through Ethan. As the first person narration opens up the description of Ethan’s features, his appearance seems “a part of the mute melancholy landscape” (14) and all the “warm[th] and sentient in him [is] fast bound below the surface” (14). He lived in silence and loneliness, as the author perceived to be a result from “the profound accumulated cold of many Starkfield winters” (15). This dreary description of Ethan’s personality is the foundation for the looming events he is faced with after reuniting with Mattie and encountering Zeena’s manipulative nature. In addition, when Ethan realizes that he only has hours before he must permanently part from his most beloved companion, Mattie, his mind becomes cluttered with cloudy and irrational thoughts of suicide, showing his depression and fear of losing the only thing he cares about in his life. As he stares at his surrounding of the hill filled with snow, he notices that “it was the most confusing hour of the evening” (162). Ethan becomes unsure of his purpose in life without Mattie and contemplates killing them both so they can be together for eternity. He notices this specific hour as “when the last clearness from the upper sky is merged with the rising night in a blur that disguises landmarks and falsifies distances” (162). Wharton uses this imagery and use of geography to show Ethan’s foggy mindset and the blurred vision of his future.
Dark, gloomy, rain, constant snow. What do all these words have in common? They are all weather terms that transpire into feelings of depression and sadness. The weather and environment around people often have the greatest affects on their mood, behavior, and even their decisions. This is seen in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, in which the entire novel is set in the snowy, bleak landscape of Starkfield, “The village lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners” (19). Within this stark, wintery landscape lies an equally cold and loveless marriage between Ethan and his sickly wife Zeena. However, Ethan had a secret love for Zeena’s young and fresh cousin Mattie. This bleak weather ultimately shuns Ethan away from his wife, and allows him to see the beauty of Mattie who has come to help Zeena with regular housework, “Mattie came forward, unwinding her wraps, the colour of the cherry scarf in her fresh lips and cheeks” (34). Unwilling to let Mattie go in the end of the novel, he takes Mattie on a sleigh ride that he had promised her for some time. It is ultimately the harsh winters mixed with the spite-filled marriage to Zeena that spikes Ethan’s desire to leave his lackluster, sad life by descending down a slippery, winter slope toward a large elm tree in hopes of ending his life with his true love, Mattie, by his side. Ethan’s decision to attempt to commit suicide with Mattie, “‘So’t [they’ll] never come back up any more’”(90), is a clear demonstration of how the New England landscape and his surroundings, including his monstrous wife and menial job, drove him into a state of desperation and an “abyss of darkness”.
ReplyDeleteEdith Wharton’s own life influenced the story of Ethan Frome, from the setting to the story itself. Wharton herself felt trapped within a bleak marriage to a man she never truly loved, much like Ethan to Zeena. Wharton grew up in New York, with similar New England harsh, cold, lifeless winters as in Ethan Frome. According to her biography, Wharton also suffered from depression, which is reflected in Ethan himself, who suffers from depression after feeling trapped within every aspect of his life, the farm, his job, and his wife. Wharton used writing to escape from her depression, and similarly Ethan tried to escape from his own depression caused by several factors through attempted suicide. Overall, both the influence of bleak surroundings and Wharton’s own life are seen both in Ethan himself and in the story of Ethan Frome.
“When negative feelings are suppressed positive feelings become suppressed as well, and love dies.” –John Gray
ReplyDeleteNegativity presses hard against the support walls that hold our world together. War and terrorism have overpowered the emotions of our country since 9/11. Terminal illnesses conquer a persons power to fight back after years of sickness. Depression affects not only those who are battling with it, but also family members who surround. Edith Wharton’s husband suffered from depression, which originally was thought to be curable. After many years of traveling halted by the worsening disease, their relationship withered away little by little. Edith was troubled because of the negative atmosphere she was living in. 1908 was an interesting year for Edith because within this time it was concluded that her husbands disease was incurable and her eyes wandered onto another man whom she had an affair with. Her gloomy environment packed with emotional despair and heartache acted as the foundation of her book Ethan Frome, which was written in 1911, only three years after her marriage deteriorated. Ethan Frome closely mimics the relationships that Edith had at the time her book was written. The main character, Ethan Frome is burdened by his ill wife Zeena. Ethan finds a little bit of happiness with his wife’s cousin Mattie. Ethan, like Edith, was greatly affected by his pessimistic environment. Distance between Ethan and Zeena grew every day after Zeena became very ill and after Ethan developed feelings for Mattie. Throughout the novel we see Ethan battling his emotions and the physical climates around him that create a boundary separating him from a desirable lifestyle. Even though Ethan has felt nothing for Zeena and only married her because she aided with his mother’s sickness, he cannot find the strength to end their relationship. His love for Mattie grows stronger with every day, which causes even more emotional stress on Ethan because he has feelings for another woman. After Zeena releases Mattie from her duties at their household, Ethan’s feelings are coupled with anger and sadness. Ethan’s pain is caused by not only his relationships, but also the physical environment. Edith conveys this when “[Ethan] rubbed his eyes and went to the window. A red sun stood over the grey rim of the fields, behind trees that looked black and brittle” (135). The imagery used here only strengthens the idea that the environment affects Ethan’s life. Without some kind of positivity in his life, Ethan will not find anything to truly feel good about. Ethan’s “wife’s retort [is] like a knife-cut across sinews and he [feels] suddenly weak and powerless”(117). He is not happy with Zeena, yet he cannot leave her because of guilt of leaving someone who is ill. He battles his emotions with no help from the “brittle” and cold environment. Ethan’s life exemplifies the account made in which environments and situations highly affect both authors and the characters within their works.
At 23, after giving up her passionate love with Henry James, Edith married Teddy Wharton. 12 years her senior, they had hardly anything in common. One common pursuit was traveling. An escape from reality and an exploration of new surroundings, travels brought them both pleasure. However, beginning in 1880, Teddy began suffering from depression. Edith became entrapped in the dark hole he was living in. They ceased all their travels cutting off any connection to one another. A further strain on their already loveless marriage, Edith found herself lost and looking for meaning in the world. It seemed that things just never worked out in her favor. In a life void of passion or companionship, she was encompassed in a cloud of darkness. Teddy was only an aggravating reminder that she could not fix his desperate woes or make herself happy. At the final straw, Teddy’s nervous breakdown set their divorce in motion. This brought on more confusion and loss, as well as feelings of failure. As a result, her novel, Ethan Frome, came to life. Reflecting on a tragic accident, in which one of her friends was involved, Edith depicts a tragic love triangle in Ethan Frome. Surrounded by a gloomy New England atmosphere, the characters struggle as they all face despair and heartache. In the end, there are no winners. Badly injured from a sad attempt at suicide, Mattie and Ethan, live a fragile and miserable life, paying for their sins as they fade away. Meanwhile, Zeena remains sickly and heartbroken, as she lives with the truth that her husband loved another woman.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the narrator portrays Zeena as harsh and grumpy, it is obvious that she has faced a terrible situation and is reacting likewise. Zeena is troubled and paranoid by the obvious attraction between Mattie and Ethan. Ethan, the seemingly selfless person who takes in the poor, homeless Zeena, is actually up to no good. He often considers leaving his wife who is sickly and frail herself. Zeena recognizes this, and is especially heartbroken by the breaking of the pickle dish, which was a sign of her shattered relationship with Ethan. The darkness is Zeena’s life seeps through her pores from out of her soul with her “grayish tinge[d]” skin. For quite some time, she is forced to watch her husband and Mattie sneak off , while Zeena is left home, too fragile to leave. When Mattie and Ethan selfishly sled down the dangerous slope, they are left seriously injured. Thus, Zeena is forced to care for and nurse the careless lovers who have caused her despair. This all links back to Edith’s outlook that the world is ultimately not a fairytale, but a place of unexpected adversities and unfair situations.
Descriptions of the landscapes and the weather are some of the first things you read in a novel. This is because the descriptions not only reveal the setting but also the mood of the story and the characters. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton uses the harsh New England winters to show the bleakness of teh chracters percieved futures. They are all trapped in dysfunctional relationships, which mirrors Wharton’s own troubled reltionship with her husband that eventually ended in divorce. New England winters are often romanticized, portrayed as covered bridges, or pristine fields of untouched snow, but in Ethan Frome this is idea of the winter is stripped from Ethan by his loveless marriage to Zeena, the bleak ice and cold representing the lifeless and barren relationship. Ethans depression eventually becomes so deep that the most cherished of winter images become warped, A hill is no longer a place for children to spend a day having fun and sledding to forget about the cold, instead it becomes a place to attempt suicide by crashing the sled. The innocence of the sledding hill is marred by Ethan’s depression, a mark reflected on his face, and shows how deeply depressed Ethan is if a simple day sledding can morph into a suicide attempt.
ReplyDelete“A man is not rightly conditioned until he is a happy, healthy, and prosperous being; and happiness, health, and prosperity are the result of a harmonious adjustment of the inner with the outer of the man with his surroundings.”- James Allen
ReplyDeleteAn environment can be most influential in the outcome of feelings and emotions. The either positive or negative surrounding energy can cause a variety of temperament states and can determine an overall being. Edith Wharton lived over half her life in France. During the 20th century, it was not common for women to break out of the sophisticated image of how women were supposed to behave due to society’s terms. Edith was not like most women. Her life was filled with the constant battle between her inward feelings and outwardly having to conform to fit society’s standards. Not only did her environment bring darkness into her life, but struggles with relationships created an overwhelming sensation of gloom. One topic that she took interest in was the plight of the intelligent woman. Many believe this to be an indirect reference to her own life complications. The men in the lives of herself and women she considered to be "negative heroes—with whom they fell in love or from whom they tried to escape.” Due to the circumstances in her life that brought with them darkness, the struggles are exemplified in her works. Many of the story lines and plots are based around problems or issues she had in her own life.
The winter can have a large impact on the human soul and outward actions. In Ethan Frome’s case, it played a major role in his affair. The cold winter months control the majority of his life after he had, “been there a little longer, and had seen the phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; he began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months’ siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter.” He is a farmer with a loving soul, but he is trapped by the elements. He yearns to escape, and does so through his affair with Mattie Silver. The winter is viewed as almost a suffocating factor, although beautiful. The weather and his surrounding cold environment are the fuel that drives him to peruse the affair with Mattie.
NOTE TO REMAINING BLOGGERS: Shift the focus of your comments towards Zeena’s or Mattie’s outlook on life and their struggles with unfulfilled love relating to Wharton’s often bleak and depressing life. Previous students have done an excellent job of analyzing Ethan’s connection to the bleak New England landscape and Wharton’s life, and this prompt shift will offer new insight into the author’s other characters in the love pyramid.
ReplyDelete@Lauren: nice parallel to the cold northeastern winters confining Edith and Ethan inside, physically and spiritually and that Mattie was Ethan’s escape rope and light at the end of the tunnel
ReplyDelete@Prutha: valid point of Ethan’s emotional vulnerability following his mother’s death that drove him to rashly select a spouse he did not love
@Caroline: cunning tie in to Foster’s observations; good connection to Wharton’s use of imagery filled setting description to convey Ethan’s similarly blurred mind
@Tasha: great use of the scene with Mattie’s red scarf that reflects in her face, which symbolizes her youth and lustful aspect for Ethan
@Kelsie: astute analysis of negativity’s pandemic that kills optimism and love like Kudzu on trees
@Anna Cait: excellent point of the cataclysmic consequences of the suicide attempt in Ethan and Mattie’s physical suffering, and Zeena’s pain of infidelity and unreturned love
@Ryan: interesting view of the snow as innocent and unblemished, corrupted by a suicide attempt
@Taylor: wonderful perspective of the northeastern winter as having a juxtaposing nature of beauty and suffocation, which encourages Ethan to strive for freedom from confinement
Edith Wharton never felt comfortable in life. She always felt like there was more to it than obeying the stereotypical female laws. Housework, chores, they were insignificant in her eyes. However, she still followed these guidelines throughout her life, conforming against her own will. Although she truly wanted to find what was beautiful in life, she dared not challenge the male dominant society that was her generation. The only opportunity Wharton saw to express her inner emotions was through her writing. And so she wrote stories that conveyed these distraught, restricted emotions, Ethan Frome being a significant example. Her surrounding environment only dampered her depressing writings even more. Massachusetts is known for its drastically cold, severe weather. Snow and cold rain are normalities in the northeast and this depressing weather showed within Ethan Frome.
ReplyDeleteA character that struggles with her inner emotions throughout Ethan Frome is Zeena. Although it is apparent that she is the victim of Ethan's adultery, her negative personality quickly shines through. She is the type of eccentric, "woe is me" character that all of us despise associating ourselves with. Everything is always about her and it is no wonder Ethan wanted to rid himself of her, even taking the drastic decision to attempt suicide. The even more sickening aspect is that it is clear she takes a sadistic pleasure in knowing Ethan and Mattie are suffering from her being alive. Because her and Ethan are married, they can not truly enjoy each other's company and express their emotions. Instead of finding a way to better her life and free herself of all of her negatives, Zeena instead chooses to continue to dwell on her "pitiful" life and make all those around her miserable as well.
While sympathy is a key factor in Zeena’s life, Zenna only plays on the sympathy card to make the others surrounding her be drug down into the darkness and depression she feels for the world. A victim of circumstance? No, Zeena feels depressed because her quality of life has bee dimmed due to a loveless marriage and a life with no goal. Edith Wharton also felt this misery in her life that could only be remedied with her writings. She became so enveloped in her writing that Ethan Frome became a twisted version of her surroundings. She reflected personal struggles, her failing marriage, with the turmoil of others, the local sledding tragedy in her hometown. This hybrid of struggles paved the way for the cast of characters in Ethan Frome. Similar to Zeena, Wharton empathized with a certain sickness. While Zeena may have fabricated her physical illness, she was emotionally sick. This parallels the emotional sickness felt by Wharton. Both Wharton and Zeena inner struggles were reflected outwardly by the relationship that were kept unmaintained with those around her.
ReplyDeleteWaking up to find the world a medley of grays, blacks, and dark blues with hints of lightening flashing isn't exactly the best feeling in the world. It puts a damper on the rest of the day, your clothes don't fit just the way you want them to, none of the songs on the radio are singing your beat, and school is flying by at the pace of a snail. Why? Simple, one's surroundings mixed with the circumstances influence people's emotions in reality, so it makes sense to have the same portrayal with characters in storybooks as well. Ethan Frome is a prime example of such circumstances and surroundings having effect on the characters. One specifically is Mattie Silver, she comes to join Ethan and Zeena in Starkfield as Zeena’s aid from her former town of Stamford. Mattie arrives a joyful young woman, pleasant to the eye and ear, she seems to keep this front up around others, but underneath it all she’s insecure, clenching onto her comfort zone, which in this case would be Ethan. She goes even to the extreme of keeping him with her forever by suggesting they run into the elm, “Right into the big elm. You said you could. So ‘t we’d never have to leave each other any more.” (130) Ethan then realizes what Starkfield has done to her; it has done just what it’s done to him. It made her cold, unhappy, left to busy herself with the minimal housework in an attempt to portray happiness. But Ethan was her escape and now she was leaving him, it just couldn’t be true, hence sending her down the last flight of steps into the abyss of darkness.
ReplyDeleteWriting such a sad, dark story is no easy task; Edith Wharton had her fair share of experiences. The infatuation between Mattie and Ethan is likely linked to the affair Wharton had with Morton Fullerton, while her husband, Teddy, was busy with his own mistress. An awful love twist, easily compared with the love mess in Ethan Frome. Then of course, the tragic sleigh accident in her hometown, she did in fact get to know one of the victims, which, it is proposed, was the basis for the overall physical characteristics of Ethan. I do find it interesting though how Wharton seemed to put so much of her hometown into the story, it’s like a subtle reminder that this is her life, a way for her to vent but without dealing with any questions or sympathy. A memorial not meant to last indefinitely just long enough to see her through till the end of her darkness.
@McLeod - An excellent analysis of Zeena. Your diction paints the exact picture I believe Wharton attempted to conjure in the reader's mind - a witch, feeding off the pain of others.
ReplyDelete@Cassie - A very interesting and apologetic view of Zeena. Your post exemplifies a great change in viewpoint to defend this usually "scapegoated" character.
@Sydney - Your use of colors and images hints wonderfully at Wharton's own style and technique, and your insights prove very thought provoking. Excellent tie-in with Wharton's own life.
The trials and tribulations that shrouded Edith Wharton’s life can be traced through the pages of her novella, Ethan Frome. In Edith’s own life, she was subjected to a poor love life. Her first fiancé called off the wedding because her family was to arrogant. Eventually, she married Teddy Wharton, a quiet and peculiar man. After years of celibacy and a lack of contentment in her marriage, Edith sought compassion elsewhere as she committed adultery. Her lovers included men and woman alike, as she was confused with her own sexuality. Teddy eventually found out and the relationship worsened as he had a series of panic attacks. This attributed to an increase of stress on Edith’s life. Her only escape was to rhapsodize about the New England setting in her novel, Ethan Frome. Edith’s own difficult life overall (especially her love life) led her to capture this world in her book. Ethan is a character in the book that is dragged down by his setting. His sickly wife, Zena, traps Ethan in a world full of demands and sorrow. The harsh and bleak New England winter makes Ethan’s life even more tedious. He lives in a small, under-heated cottage so the tundra-like conditions make the long winters unbearable. They were so unbearable that they prompted Ethan to wish to take his own life. He attempted to commit suicide through a sledding accident. His plan was foiled as he crashed into a tree, which left him paralyzed. This paralysis symbolizes Ethan’s final straw. Ethan’s only feasible escape, suicide, had now vanished which left him stuck with a harsh wife and cruel winter temperatures for the rest of his life. The harsh New England setting truly dragged Ethan down to his knees in the face of malevolent nature.
ReplyDeleteZeena's outlook on life is similar to Ethan's, she feels a sense of entrapment. She is unhappy with her life so she makes it her goal to bring Ethan down as well. This morphed a spiraling conundrum of hatred and sorrow that eventually led to crippling effects for both of them as they became paralyzed.
ReplyDeleteEdith Wharton's life had tendencies of doom, gloom, and controversy throughout which is vital to her characters' emotions, personalities, and the depressing environments and situations that influence them. A privileged woman herself, Wharton criticizes the upper-class' rigid disposition and structure. This analysis that she focuses on creates a tone of animosity and longing, caused by her unconventional beliefs and lifestyle, noting that it has been said that she may have been a lesbian later in life. The criticizism leads Wharton to a dim light on human nature, placing her characters in dark lighting. The environment does affect characters as humans are influenced by their surroundings. In Ethan Frome, the dark and hopeless tone representing the characters' ultimate demises is set up when, "Deep quiet sank on the room. The clock ticked above the dresser, a piece of charred wood fell now and then in the stove, and the faint sharp scent of the geraniums mingled with the odour of Ethan's smoke, which began to throw a blue haze about the lamp and to hang its greyish cobwebs in the shadowy corners of the room" (74). There are several references to hopelessness using color, grey and blue haze, meaning confusion, and shadowy corners reflects entrapment in one's self and environment. The characters are already set in a depressing setting, influenced by Wharton's own uncertainty. The tone that the setting creates affects Mattie by its dark and gloomy characteristics, helping to convey Mattie's bleak outlook on life. Wharton herself was conflicted with the pursuit of happiness as Mattie is. Love seems to come second and true love is not an important part of life. The emptiness and lack of passion leaves a hole in Mattie's heart and soul as, "His wife looked so hard and lonely, sitting there in the darkness with suck thoughts" (88). She is essentially alone with herself to wallow in life with no cause. Once again the darkness is used to further produce an empty hopeless emotion which in the end plays an important factor on Mattie's feelings and actions at each moment.
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