Ethan Frome

Detail and Figurative Language Illustrate Differences in Characterization “In a day when women were to look at and nothing more, they weren’t intelligent, they were fashionable, Edith stood alone” (Ovard, 1). Edith Wharton was born on January 24, 1862 into a tightly controlled, New York society that positively discouraged women from achieving anything beyond a proper marriage. Her role as a daughter of an aristocratic New York family was to learn the mannerisms and rituals expected of …

…figurative language used by the author illustrate the differences between Zeena and Mattie. The author’s techniques are used frequently, and they help to develop the characters’ different personalities. There is an immense difference between the young, warm, and feminine Mattie and Ethan’s old, cold, and complaining wife. The two women involved in Ethan’s life are such opposites that the reader is forced to identify with either Mattie or Zeena but not both.