A review of Edith Wharton’s book, Ethan Frome, illustrating the tragic hero.
This paper parallels the classic tragic hero with Edith Wharton’s “Ethan Frome”. The paper describes the central character, Ethan Frome, outlining his positive and negative character traits. Ethan Frome’s inability to take responsibility for himself and his actions, is examined and explained as leading to his ultimate downfall.
The classical tragic hero is a person who has a strong character except for one fatal flaw, which leads to his downfall. In Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, the title character can be considered a tragic hero because of his will power and strength, but he possesses a flaw that ultimately results in his ruin. This imperfection is Frome’s inability to take responsibility for himself and for his actions and to find escape from these responsibilities through other people and means.