Beginning of Essay
Two writers, both women, both from different backgrounds. Edith Wharton was high society. Grazia Deledda was a commoner from another country. Though both wrote almost exclusively to their won regions, their portrayal of women was quite similar. In Wharton's Etha ....

Middle of Essay
.... lie two women. The first is Zenobia Frome, or Zeena for short. In her late twenties, she suffers from a compounded sickness that was thought to be brought on by her taking care of Ethan's mother and her absorption of life's burdens. In this story she is the conflicting character. The other woman is a young Mattie Silver, the cousin of Zeena and the housemaid of the Fromes. Mattie is about twenty-one years old and not too much of a house keeper since she is small and weak and somewhat clumsy. But nevertheless she caught the eye of Ethan Frome who would fetch her on nights of town revelry, and with that grew a forbidden love. This is the conflict ....