Ethan frome

YENNI ALEJANDRA GÓMEZ AGUIRRE

4306501

PROFESSOR: GERMAN PEREZ

ENGLISH CLASS IX

UCEVA

OCTOBER 18TH, 2010

ETHAN FROME AND HIS WEAK PERSONALITY

“"Zeena, I've done all I could for you, and I don't see as it's been any use. I don't blame you, nor I don't blame myself. Maybe both of us will do better separate. I'm going to try my luck West, and you can sell the farm and mill, andkeep the money-"”[1], few seconds later Ethan Frome (one of the principal characters) decided does not leave Zeena considering that she was not able to take care of herself; as normal in the book “Ethan Frome”, Ethan looked out for the interests of others, in this case, his wife, and according to this he acted to serve her interests what she wants or needs, rather than his own desires. Well, basedon the Freud's Structural and Topographical Models of Personality the ego is based on the reality principle, and this is the model which dominates Ethan Frome during the envelopment of the book, at the same time the present paper it is going to develop three main defense mechanisms, there are, projection, intellectualization whose serve to protect the ego used by Frome.

Above all, the firststep to take into account is the ego, according to this model mechanism it “understands how other people have needs and desires and sometimes could being impulsive or selfish can hurt them in the long run.  It is the ego's job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.”[2] These explanations of what means “ego” permit to assert that Frome puts others´needs firstly than his own needs or desires, since the beginning of the novel the reader can find an intelligent person who loves read books, and also, who had always wanted to be an engineer, and to live in towns, where there were lectures and big libraries and fellows doing things. (Wharton, Page 33) and although those goals and purposes, he stayed in Starkfield, Massachusetts, forgettingthem, forgetting what he want to do, what he wants in his own life, in order to take care of others, firstly his father, then his mother, and then his wife:

- Why didn't he?"
-"Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warn't ever anybody
but Ethan. Fust his father-then his mother-then his wife."
-"And then the smash-up?"
Harmon chuckled sardonically. -"That's so. He had to stay then."-"I see. And since then they've had to care for him?"
Harmon thoughtfully passed his tobacco to the other cheek. -"Oh: I guess it's always Ethan done the caring."

In this order, Ethan came to Starkfield because his parents were sickly, so he should take care for them, and also be aware of their household and the barn, but when they died, he also felt responsible of Zeena, the woman who tookcare of his mother while she was sick;

- “My health, when I lost it nursing your own mother!"

- "You lost your health nursing mother?"

- "Yes; and my folks all told me at the time you couldn't do no less than

marry me after-"[3]

And although they were young and could left Starkfield and live in one of those big cities in the country, they did not, because accordingto Ethan she would have suffered a complete loss of identity, and joined with the "sickliness" that she developed within a year of their marriage, they just could not leave the cold village.

In this way, the first defense mechanisms which is taken into account in the present piece of work is the projection which means “placing unacceptable impulses in yourself onto someone else”[4] In one ofthe fragments of the book Ethan spook about his wife Zeena, describing her as an intelligent woman with who he can travel into another city more bigger than Starfkfield, “he felt sure, with a "smart" wife like Zeena, it would not be long before he had made himself a place in it”[5], and although those kind of thinkings about his wife, they still stayed in Starkfield because the real reason of the...