How reliable is the narrator in Ethan Frome?
I quote: “I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.” This opening paragraph encapsulates the main ideas of my presentation today. How reliable is the narrator in Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome? Edith Wharton uses the narrator’s sketchy account of Ethan Frome’s life to generate mystery and insecurity in the story. She uses the nameless engineer as a device to deliberately establish a feeling of uncertainty, as well as creating suspense for the reader. Through the collaboration of each version of Ethan Frome, including in the end the narrator’s version, he and his life seem more of a myth than anything real. Wharton has structured the novel out of chronological sequence, as the prologue and epilogue, which form the outer frame, are some twenty years after the central story. The prologue and epilogue are written in the first person as an outsider to the lives of the key characters narrates the story.
