Essay | The Codependency of the Fromes

"Dependent personality disorder."(Morris)  To people who suffer from this disorder, making a decision is virtually impossible. It is only by getting assistance from others that they can make even the simplest of choices. When some of these people come together, they rely on each other to help them with decision-making.  Unfortunately, the codependency created by this situation frequently makes it impossible for these people to separate. In fact, they often become so interdependent that subconsciously they increasingly act in ways that will maintain the status quo. In Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome, the three major characters are so dependent on each other that no matter what they try, they remain stuck together.  To underscore this point, Edith Wharton uses both language and diction to illustrate each of the three major characters' basic inability to make their decisions and their resultant codependence on each other.

    Ethan Frome, the most predominant...
(read more)