Sexual Intricacies, Patriarchal Voices and the Question of Masculinity in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome

Abstract

In Ethan Frome Edith Wharton has captured the progress of the narrative in terms of sexual development of its protagonist and various dilemmas posed by sex in the lives of its characters. The plot of the narrative develops with the sexual maturation of Ethan Frome which is sometimes supported and sometimes obstructed by various external and internal forces like society, family, environment, religion, money, gender, human nature, instincts etc. In Ethan Frome Edith Wharton has closely examined the role of all these external and internal forces in governing the sex-life of an individual. She has questioned whether in the field of love and marriage their effects are inevitable or there is a viable option to escape them. The present study aims at weighing the magnitude of these forces and the credibility of the options provided by the tragic destiny of Ethan Frome and the tragic married life of Edith Wharton.