The Tragedy of Ethan Frome
…after all, the tragedy unveiled to us is social rather than personal…Ethan Frome is to
me above all else a judgment on that system which fails to redeem such villages as Mrs.
Wharton’s Starkfield.
—Literary critic and author Edwin Bjorkman
Your task: Synthesize information and ideas to create a clear, well-reasoned and wellsupported argument for Ethan Frome.
Overview:
Keeping in mind our course review and re-set, we will spend two weeks analyzing and
sussing out ideas in Ethan Frome. Class should feel like an intense mental workout, and you
should aim to “max out.” No half-speed; no wimping out. You should ask honest and demanding
questions and dig deep to find logical and persuasive evidence. You should hold yourselves and
your peers accountable, and you should have a little fun examining the nuances of good, chewy
literature. After all, that’s why we’re here, right?
With that said, here’s the plan:
MONDAY, 1.5
TUESDAY, 1.6
WEDNESDAY, 1.7
THURSDAY, 1.8
FRIDAY, 1.9
MONDAY, 1.12
Review & reset; EF overview; EF student reactions & discovery
Critical reading & passage analysis
Critical reading activity
Seminar prep
Seminar (Homework: Thesis & intro prepped and ready for workshop)
Workshop 1
TUESDAY, 1.13
Literary analysis in-depth – lecture & notes
WEDNESDAY, 1.14
Application, drafting, & teacher conference
THURSDAY, 1.15
Application, drafting, & teacher conference
FIRDAY, 1.16
Goals:
Workshop 2 (Essay due at BEGINNING of class on Tuesday)
• Situate Ethan Frome within the context of American regionalist literature
• Gather, annotate, and analyze key quotations from Ethan Frome.
• Respond to contemporary reviews of Ethan Frome.
• Use textual evidence to support original claims about the plight of the novel’s protagonist.
• Use discussion and collaboration as a means of deepening textual analysis.
• Identify logical and well-reasoned evidence to support ideas about characters and themes.
• Analyze literature through multiple “lenses” – language, device, reader response, lit crit – to
achieve maximum understanding.
• Synthesize ideas to create and support authentic and original claims.
• Defend, challenge, or qualify a given claim and use as a springboard into argument.
• Identify and create claims, direct and indirect evidence, and justification and commentary in
literary analysis.