Wharton's view of rural life: Ethan Frome

Despite the absurdities of the Wharton introduction to her own novel, "Ethan Frome," as noted in yesterday's post, you can't help but be moved by the story once it's underway. Yes, it's not the most subtle thing Wharton ever wrote - again, part of her belief that these country people of the Berkshires are simple folk? - buut she clearly delineates the characters, or the main character, right from the start. In the preface, we're in (her) present day, circa 1910, as an engineer assigned briefly to the Berkshires (railroad work?) becomes curious ab out the lame and dour elderly man in town, the eponymous Frome- he hires Frome to take him by sleigh to various postings, and one night, snowbound, he stays over at Frome's much-neglected farmstead, and presumably at that time learns the story of Frome's life, and then we backtrack to chapter 1 as an omniscient narrator tells Frome's story: Frome is unhappily married to an unkind, invalid woman, and they bring her young cousin in to help care for her - she brings the spark of life and beauty into the drab household and naturally Frome falls for her, which is nothing but trouble - she's obvious nice to him like she's nice to everyone and would never even think of him as a romantic/sexual interest - this made clear in opening scene as Frome spies on her at a village dance, as she spins around the floor with the son of the town's wealthy merchant - obviously much more her type, but Frome goes into spasms of jealousy. This can lead nowhere good. We certainly feel sorrow and pity for Frome, and the strength of the novel, at least at the outset, is how he is presented as part of his society, he's not just an unhappy and naive man but he's stuck in a very small town, his aspirations (he studied engineering for a year) quashed by poverty and obligation - to her credit, Wharton does not sentimentalize rural life, she understands its harshness and demands, and she seems to see how poverty can crush a soul.