A Comparison Of The Women Of Wharton And Deledda :: essays research papers fc

A Comparison of the Women of Wharton and DeleddaTwo writers, two women, both from different backgrounds. Edith Whartonwas high society. Grazia Deledda was a commoner from some other country. Thoughboth wrote almost exclusively to their won regions, their portrayal of women wasquite similar. In Whartons Ethan Frome she has cardinal women, both distinct fromone another. In Deleddas La Madre, two women also make up the bulk of the story.But there are many more similarities in these works. Released only nine yearsapart both novels deal with a struggle of the heart, of the faith, and astruggle of their moral soundness. And in both stories the women are portrayedon opposite sides of the conflict. In this paper I intend to show an apparentbond betwixt these stories characters, and the gamut ran between the femalepersonae.Published in 1911, Ethan Frome is considered one of the bestcontemporary short novels of its time. Ethan Frome illuminated Whartons long-familiar writing style with a spark of imagination. In this story, as Iexpressed in the opening paragraph, lie two women. The first is Zenobia Frome,or Zeena for short. In her late twenties, she suffers from a compounded sicknessthat was thought to be brought on by her taking care of Ethans mother and herabsorption of lifes burdens. In this story she is the unconnected character.The other woman is a young Mattie Silver, the cousin of Zeena and the septmaid of the Fromes. Mattie is about twenty-one years old and not too muchof a house keeper since she is small and weak and somewhat clumsy. Butnevertheless she caught the eye of Ethan Frome who would fetch her on nights oftown revelry, and with that grew a forbidden love. This is the conflict of thestory.In 1920, Grazia Deledda publish La Madre. Maria Maddalena is themother of the priest who, throughout the book, falls to the wayside undertemptation. She is a very old-fashioned woman as is the whole town.overprotective of her son, she helps build up the climactic theme of faith. Theother woman is Agnes, a well-to-do townswoman who is the object of the priestsbackslidden affair. Unlike Ethan Frome, in this story the characters ofconflict shift between the two women. Now lets look at the comparable likenessof the women in both stories.To look at Maria Maddalena and Zeena Frome in the same frame would notbe a far stretch. Both are very controlling and try to rule the lives of themen around them.