There are manipulative people who make innocent people stay in their lives, just because they are lonely and need someone. The innocent people can feel too guilty to leave someone that needs them, when themselves are suffering loving someone they do not. Ethan wanted to move away from Starkfield, but Zeena did not want to live in a city where she would have no identity. Her hypochondria and her few legitimate illness serve as excuse for her to look in patent remedies and expensive visits to the doctors at a time when Ethan is struggling to pay off the heavy mortgage on the farm and still maintain financial debt. Ethan couldn’t get ahead and move by himself because all the money was being spent by Zeena.
After his parents died he was very depressed. he did not want to feel lonely so he married so he married Zeena. Ethan really did not want Mattie there at first.
“As her young brown head detached itself against the patch-work cushion that habitually frame his wife’s gaunt countenance, Ethan had a momentary shock. It was almost as if the other face, the face of the superseded woman, had obliterated that of the intruder.” (Wharton Chapter 5). During his night alone with Mattie he can’t help but be reminded of his domestic duties as he sits in the kitchen. Ethan is excited to get a night with Mattie but can't control the feeling of Zeena being around.
Throughout the book, Ethan is vigilant about maintaining Zeena's ignorance about his relationship with Mattie, mainly to prevent her from going through Zeena's wrath, which would likely result in her termination from any sort of job opportunity and destitution. As a result of this, Ethan's horror is apparent when Zeena informs him of her plans to replace Mattie with a more competent servant, to which he responds by begging her to not let her flesh and blood wallow in the streets penniless (Wharton, 63). This triggers Ethan's full-blown anger towards Zeena, which in the end, only cumulated to a clutter of ineffectual words that couldn't sway Zeena's decision or Mattie's fate. Even when considering the most drastic solutions, such as migrating to the West with Mattie alone, he realizes that not only does he not have the money to travel there, but that he would risk Zeena laboring with the farm work in feeble health and leeching funds off of the very friends that were so kind to him before (Wharton, 79). Due to these obstacles, Ethan forces himself to give up on any sort of escape due to the inconveniences he would cause his friends and family.
Later on in the story, a “smash up” happened. It is a sledding “accident” but really it’s a suicidal attempt by Ethan and Mattie because they realize they will never be able to get together in this world. During the attempt, Ethan pulls away. “But suddenly his wife face, with twisted with monstrous lineaments, thrust himself between him and his goal”(Wharton 20). This quote shows the internal conflict going on with Ethan.
Right after the dish breaks, Ethan said that Zeena would have to blame it on the cat. In chapter 7, Ethan blames the cat which caused Zeena to “turn her eyes to Mattie” (Wharton, chap 7). This could also mean that Zeena blames Mattie for breaking the dish and relationship. In chapter 6, Ethan gets the glue to fix the dish. Symbolically it could mean that he found a plan or a way to fix his relationship.
As the novel began, the overall idea of the story informs the audience that Zeena, Ethan’s wife, suffered from some form of illness. This form
Mattie, Zeena and Ethan were all responsible for their own actions which resulted in them getting what they deserved. Ethan Frome was a young, 28 year old man, who lived in Starkfield, Massachusetts and was married to Zenobia Frome. Zeena helped care for Ethan’s mother when she was dying, which is how they got to know each other. After the death of his mother, Ethan began
In the beginning of the novel, Zeena was portrayed as a sickly woman who depended on others, although this was true, she developed throughout the story, which Ethan and Mattie did not do. At the end Zeena took care of Ethan and Mattie because she “had the strength given her to care for those two for over twenty years”. By herself, Zeena got over her sickness to care for Ethan and Mattie, after such a big task was thrown at her she overcame the struggle and continued to care for them. She changed her personality from dependent and cold to an independent woman who helped the ones she cared about. Ethan and Mattie did not choose to change to better themselves like Zeena did, instead they stayed insecure and selfish and made irrational decisions.
After a small time of being married to Ethan, Zeena became sick herself. Throughout the story Zeena went from being a nurse to a patient, only to return to her role as being a nurse for both Ethan and Mattie, the help. In Edith Wharton’s naturalist novel Ethan Frome, the main character, Zeena, is a jealous, hypochondriac who ends up becoming the most responsible character in the novel. Mattie Silver is Zenobia’s cousin who came to live with the Frome’s after her parents both died. She is a beautiful young lady that is, as Zeena states, “of marrying age.”
In a final scene from Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton draws a timeline leading up to the main character, Ethan Frome, and his love interest, Mattie Silver deciding to take their lives rather than letting the rules implied by the society of Starkfield force them to part, their decision in turn contributing to the theme that confinement from pressure from society can drive citizens to their torment. Contributing to the novel as a whole, this scene also highlights Ethan’s built up misery by displaying his willingness to die in order to escape his unwanted marriage to his ailing wife, Zeena. To begin with, as a resident in Starkfield, a town whose residents, obviously unadjusted divorce, consider seven year of marriage as “not so long”, Ethan feels
Both Zeena and Ethan have varying responses, however both showing some commitment to repair their union. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton utilizes a broken pickle dish, to represent the views of espousement, and the representation of their varied human actions. Ethan and Zeena Frome’s marriage represents a union based on obligation rather that love. Throughout the story, Ethan is a weak and submissive husband under the control of a domineering wife.
Zeena had a sort of authority over Ethan which is given the perspective of the cat. The cat in this novel seemed resemble Zeena to a great extent. Both the cat and Zeena have very slick, sly, and destructive behaviors. “The cat backs into the pickle dish and it falls to the floor with a crash,” ( Wharton 32) “then jumped into Zeena's chair, rolled itself into a ball, and lay watching them [Ethan and Mattie] with narrowed eyes.” (Wharton 34) These quotes demonstrate that although Zeena ruined the marriage, for some reason she wanted to keep Ethan around.
Ethan’s bad choices of leaving school, feeling lonely and marrying Zeena and then also being avoidant when he wants to leave her. Obviously, Ethan Frome’s tragedy is all caused by his personal decisions. One of many ignorant choices Ethan makes is when his mother gets ill, somewhere in the beginning of the story. During this time, Ethan dropped out of college.
When Ethan was young, he showed potential and was on the path of escaping life in Starkfield. However, he seemed to always be thwarted by his circumstance. Ethan had good reason to leave behind his studies as an engineer at
