Comparison essay on "Ethan Frome" and "The Story of an Hour"

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome are similar that the characters are both trapped in a loveless marriage and have controlling spouses. Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" tells a story of how a woman sobs for the loss of her husband but ironically is also overjoyed by the loss. Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome tells a story of a man, Ethan, who is trapped in a loveless marriage, …

…always go on living here together, and some day she'll lie there beside me"(21). Both characters, Louise and Ethan are trapped in loveless marriages. Under normal circumstances, their situations would have remained unchanged except for an unforeseeable event. In Ethan's situation Mattie came to tend to his wife while in Louise's circumstance it was the report of her husband's death. In both instances, they remembered who they had been and what their futures could be.