1. He Seemed a Part of the Mute, Melancholy Landscape, an Incarnation of Its Frozen Woe (P. 7)

QUOTATIONS

Find the following quotes in your book. For each quote, say who is talking and who the quote is talking about. Finally, what do the following quotes reveal about the character they describe? Think about theme when you answer.

1. "He seemed a part of the mute, melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe" (p. 7).

2. When Mattie says, referring to a group of clouds overhead, "`It looks just as if it was painted,' it seemed to Ethan that the art of definition could go no farther, and that words had at last been found to utter his secret soul...." (p. 17)

3. "I guess you're always late, now you shave every morning." (p. 19)

4. "Though she was but seven years her husband's senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was already an old woman." (p. 34)

5. "It was as senseless and savage as a physical fight between two enemies in the darkness" (p61).

6. "...a mysterious, alien presence, an evil energy..." (p. 64).

7. * "I could go down this hill with my eyes tied!" (p. 88).

Longer quotations: exploring how a writer achieves effects.

8. Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp. The light . . . drew out of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its rings of crimping-pins. p27-28

 Who is being described in this quote?  Pick out words or phrases the author uses to describe the character? How does she achieve such a haunting effect?

9. All the long misery of his baffled past, of his youth of failure, hardship and vain effort, rose up in his soul in bitterness and seemed to take shape before him in the woman who at every turn had barred his way. She had taken everything else from him; and now she meant to take the one thing that made up for all the others. For a moment such a flame of hate rose in him that it ran down his arm and clenched his fist against her. He took a wild step forward and then stopped. “You’re—you’re not coming down?” he said in a bewildered voice. p 65

 Who are the characters mentioned in this quote?  Put the quotation into context and explain why this is such a crucial moment in the story.  Explore how the author shows Ethan’s anger through specific words or phrases she uses.

10 . He knew that most young men made nothing at all of giving a pretty girl a kiss, and he remembered that the night before, when he had put his arm about Mattie, she had not resisted. But that had been out-of-doors, under the open irresponsible night. Now, in the warm lamplit room, with all its ancient implications of conformity and order, she seemed infinitely farther away from him and more unapproachable. p50

 One of the book’s important themes is raised in this quote. Which one is it?

11. There was one day, about a week after the accident, when they all thought Mattie couldn’t live. Well, I say it’s a pity she did . . . if [Mattie] ha’ died, Ethan might ha’ lived; and the way they are now, I don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard; ’cept that down there they’re all quiet, and the women have got to hold their tongues. p99

 Explore the irony in these words, which mark the end of the novel.

SETTING

1."He seemed a part of the mute, melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe" (p. 7).

 What does this quote show about the setting? How is the setting like a character in itself?

2. When I had been there a little longer, and had seen this phase of crystal clearness followed by long stretches of sunless cold; when the storms of February had pitched their white tents about the devoted village and the wild cavalry of March winds had charged down to their support; I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from its six months’ siege like a starved garrison* capitulating without quarter. p4  Explore how the author shows how bitter the winters in Starkfield are.  The word “stark” means “harsh, grim or desolate, rigid in death, austere. Explain how the name Starkfield (which is a fictional town) contributes to the atmosphere.  This particular quote is a good example of Wharton’s descriptive writing. Identify some of the techniques she uses here and say what effect they have.  What elements of foreshadowing can you find in this extract? *garrison=military troops