Ethan Frome

by Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome: Frame Story 1 key example

Frame Story
Explanation and Analysis—Frame Story:

In Ethan Frome, Wharton uses a frame story to bookend the main narrative. The novel's Prologue and Epilogue are both told from the perspective of the Narrator, an engineer who comes to Starkfield and becomes fascinated with Ethan, about whom he knows very little. The rest of the story takes place more than 20 years earlier. It's told using third-person perspective and grants the reader insight into Ethan's thoughts.