Zeena's Faulty Actions In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Ethan Frome, the story of a man with a difficult romantic triangle between his wife and her cousin constructed by Edith Wharton. The tragic outcome of the story was slowly created throughout the story due to the faulty actions of Zeena. Some of which fell under the categories of playing pity games, attention seeking exertions, and improper/poor decision making within the entire story. I believe without the faulty acts taken by Zeena within the relationship and close surrounding subjects between herself and Ethan, there would have never been a “seed” to sprout from.
Throughout the story Zeena played plenty of pity games giving Ethan more motive to feel uneasy in regards to their relationship fundamentals. Zeena would always be complaining
about

As well as making Ethan feel guilty for not having proper funds making him unable to seek high-quality medical care for her.
Zeena committed various acts trying to draw more attention to herself from Ethan, and away from Mattie. Zeena would have Ethan and Mattie repetitively fetch her medicine and prepare meals for her due to her illnesses and make multiple other demands. As Zeena started to figure out the premeditation of Mattie’s and Ethan’s scarper, she started to act more clingy as well as emotional towards Ethan to draw more attention to that instead of planning on leaving.
Alongside the other actions, Zeena made numerous poor decisions leading to the tragic outcome of the story. Some of the major poor decisions were the root of everything else I have listed here making this the biggest and most important topic to be discussed. One of the examples I noticed would be the decision of firstly marrying Ethan, while being aware of the feelings he has had for her cousin, Mattie. Following that was another poor decision which was allowing Mattie to come work and stay in their home while still acknowledging the lingering feelings Ethan had for Mattie. Zeena had pretended to be way sicker throughout the entire