Themes: The Crucuble and Ethan From

Themes are the basic and often widespread ideas explored in a literary work. The Crucible and Ethan Frome are two novels both focused on one main theme. In The Crucible the main theme was hysteria and in Ethan Frome it was desire. Both novels have very unique ways to express these themes throughout the stories.

Hysteria was a very obvious theme shown throughout the play, The Crucible. It was all started by a few young girls in Salem, Massachusetts. They were all dancing in the woods one night and were caught by Paris, the reverend in that small town. The next day two of the young girls were sick and would not move, talk, nor eat . The town began to start talk of witch craft because of the forbidden dancing that took place the other night. When the girls heard of that at first they denied it, but then they realized they could get out of being punished if they put the blame onto someone else. The began to shout out the names of people they clamed to have seem with they devil. It seemed like a logical explanation to the people in the town, so they had the people accused of being witches arrested. The whole town was in an uproar crying out witch craft to gain respect and power in the town and to get revenge on those who they were jealous of . Everyone began to thrive on this hysteria in particular Abigail Williams. She was having an affair with Elizabeth Proctors husband, John Proctor, when she had lived with them as their servant. Elizabeth throw her out when she discovered this, so Abigail took this opportunity to get revenge on her. She accused Elizabeth of witch craft and had her sent to jail. Ultimately, hysteria can only flourish because people benefit from it. It allows people to act on their true desires and hateful urges without following the rules given by society.

The novel, Ethan Frome, was mostly centered around the desires of three people, Ethan Frome, Zeena Frome, and Mattie Silver. Ethan and Zeena have a passionless marriage, which makes it hard for Ethan to feel loved. So Ethan decides to turn to someone else someone that has a mutual desire for him, Mattie Silver. Ethan and Mattie had deep passion for one another despite the fact that Ethan is married to Mattie's cousin Zenna. They been trying to hide their feelings from the out side world, but their feelings for one another take over. They decided that if they couldn't be together now than they would be together in the after life. After Zenna chooses to kick