How Did Zeena Leave Ethan Frome

Zeena was taking care of Ethan’s mother and he fell “in love” with her while she was taking care of his mother. It is said that “Her efficiency shamed and dazzled him. She seemed to posses by instinct all the household wisdom that his long apprenticeship had not instilled in him” (29). Ethan proposed to Zeena because he didn’t want to be alone, it is said in the novel that “He was seized with an unreasoning dread of being left alone on the farm, and before he knew what he was doing he had asked her to stay there with him” (29). It is unclear whether Zeena possessed a love for Ethan as Ethan claimed to of have for her. In the end of the novel Mattie is looked at as the annoying one, and he starts to care for Zeena because she is not the one inept to do household chores.

Juxtaposition is used to put two characters side by side and depict the similarities and the differences of them. Within the novel, Ethan Frome, Zeena and Mattie were two contextual characters whose individuality stood out. By studying Zeena’s and Mattie’s attitudes towards life, their roles as women in the late 19th century, their age, appearance, and their treatment of Ethan and each other throughout the novel, the reader can more deeply comprehend not only the similarities and differences of these two characters, but the function their differences serve as well. A person’s attitude towards life determines how successful they will be in life.

In //Ethan Frome// Edith Wharton illustrates how Ethan views Zeena versus Mattie through the parallel scenes of when Ethan is greeted by Zeena/Mattie at the door of his farmhouse first coming home from the dance and second coming home from. Although both scenes play out almost identically, Wharton uses the slight differences to emphasize how Ethan sees Mattie as beautiful, submissive, and attractive compared to Zeena who he only sees as an obstacle. As Ethan comes up to the door the first time when Zeena waits for him, he is so infatuated by Mattie that Zeena has become but a hurdle for him to overcome. He even dreams about if a dead vine dangling was a"crape streamer tied to the door for a

Zeena throughout the novella is portrayed as a controlling and tough character. Her values show that she cares mainly about being control and herself. For example, Zeena is always worried about her illness and many times exaggerates the seriousness of it whenever she notices Ethan is not paying much attention to

Secondly, Ethan Frome has had many failures within his life such as his marriage to Zeena. One may ask how is Zeena and Ethan’s marriage a failure? Ethan only marries Zeena after she could not nurse his mother back to health and she ends up passing away. When Ethan mother dies, Ethan is in a sullen mood or funk and in turn

His struggles are exacerbated by his surroundings such as Zeena his wife, the bleak Starkfield landscape, and his home which often takes on an oppressive quality. Mattie was Zeenas cousin and Ethans lover. This novel shows how even though Ethan and Zeena are married; Ethan loves Mattie more than he could possibly love Zeena. "It's bad enough to see the two women sitting there - but his face, when he looks around that bare place, just kills me" (Chapter 10).

Cheating is when one is not loyal or faithful to the person one is currently in a relationship with. Generally, when a person cheats on someone, he will tend to treat the person that he is cheating with better than the person that he is cheating on. In Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethan falls in love with Mattie, and Zeena notices it. Zeena expresses the way that she feels about Ethan being with Mattie and that she knows what is going on between them through her dialogue, actions, and what she observes. It is easy to see that Zeena knows that Ethan is trying to replace Zeena with Mattie.

“Magic Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” the Evil Queen inquiries (1). In the novella Ethan Frome, Mattie Silver (Snow White) surpasses the beauty of every living organism in Starkfield. Zenobia Frome correlates herself with the Evil Queen. Furthermore, Zeena, a hypochondriac in the eyes of Ethan Frome, is used as a foil for Mattie Silver. In the dark and gloomy tale of Ethan Frome, the story emerges as an inverted fairytale. The “fairy maiden” anthropomorphizes into a greater evil than the Evil Queen, herself. Snow White was known for her pale skin, red lips, and her beautiful voice. Alike Snow White, Edith Wharton sedulously attaches red and light with Mattie Silver, symbolizing her with a red scarf. Ethan Frome and Zeena are associated with dark and grim colors blending in with their haggard surroundings. Ethan is in awe when he sees Mattie, his silver lining. Zeena envies Mattie indirectly in the story and goes out of her way to make her seem like a horrendous person. Moreover, Zeena emerges as the powerful Evil Queen in Ethan Frome that successfully wins. Thus, in Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton taints the classic fairytale to become a disastrous tragedy of two lovers.

The character Ethan Frome in the novella, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton can be classified as an archetypal tragic hero. Ethan is archetypal, as the issues which confront him are universal. He draws on thoughts, feelings and concerns that have been part of humanity since the start of mankind. Ethan is a tragic hero as he shares in common, some of the characteristics required to be so. Two of these characteristics include that he has a noble stature and that he succumbs to hamartia. While Ethan Frome may not conform to a strict definition of tragic hero to be found in classical literature, he is an archetypal tragic hero nonetheless. What is particularly tragic about Ethan Frome, however, is that in order to be good, he has to be miserable.

To make matters worse, a year after Ethan and Zeena married, Zeena became very ill and then Ethan chose to take care of her even though he was in love with Mattie. Zeena eventually tells Ethan she hired a new girl and she would be staying in Mattie’s room which infuriated Ethan. Ethan was noble because he was there for Zeena and he always let Zeena have her way. The final reason why Ethan stayed with Zeena is because he felt that withholding his love for Mattie, he is sparing Zenna’s emotions and feelings (Wharton 13). This shows Ethan is noble because he is protecting Zeena and hiding their love for one another. Ethan wanted to protect Zeena and not make her feel unwanted or alone.

Human beings often make permanent decisions based off temporary emotions. Ethan Frome, the protagonist in Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome, is morally constrained to Zeena, his sickly wife, but is also afflicted by his heartfelt emotions for Mattie Silver. After years of a harsh life with Zeena who he felt he owed, Ethan comes to believe that his greatest chance at a happy life is with Mattie Silver. However, in the end Mattie's other side, one which is extremely similar to Zeena's attitude, comes to rise, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt. Edith Wharton makes an ironic tribute to the book by presenting contrasting personas, including physical appearance and attitudes to describe Zeena Frome and Mattie Silver, but also adduces

Edith Wharton’s novel, Ethan Frome, is a frame story telling two separate stories of Ethan Frome. The epilogue and prologue are the frame of the novel, occurring at a different point in time compared to the main portion of the story. Taking place twenty-four years later, they reflect how Ethan had changed from the time since the main story occurred. The narrator’s purpose was to figure out why Ethan Frome was the way he was, shown in the prologue and epilogue, and how he became that way.

Ethan Frome also has a sense of duty to stay with his current wife Zeena. Ethan wishes to leave Zeena immediately and to run away with his true love Mattie, but he knows that Zeena could not possibly support herself on her own. Edith Wharton shows this by writing, “…that Ethan drew a meager living from his land, and his wife, even if she were in better health than she imagined, could never carry such a burden alone” (Wharton 96). This distinctly explains that Ethan’s sense of duty conquers once again and controls him to stay with his bitter wife Zeena. Most have a universal opinion that Ethan has to stay with his wife Zeena. Another author agrees with the fact that Ethan’s plans to run away with Mattie have become thwarted by saying, “But immediately his plans are set afoot, things begin to close in on him again: farm and mill are mortgaged, he has no credit, and time is against him” (Howe 132). The author states that Ethan’s small estate will not support Zeena, and so Ethan’s sense of duty prevails over him again.

Ethan Frome and his wife, Zenobia (Zeena), never really know what true love feels like because they are both very lonely people. They meet when Zeena is caring for Ethan’s mother; due to their loneliness, they mistake the bizarre feeling of companionship for love. Ethan marries Zeena, not because he is in love, but because he does not want to be alone and he feels like he owes it to her for everything she is doing for him. She is aware of this and claims, “...you grudged me the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother! And my folks all told me at the time you couldn 't do no less than marry me after—” (Wharton 83). In addition to Zeena saying that Ethan

The novel Ethan Frome is a short story packed with detail. It takes place in Starkfield and is about a farmer named Ethan Frome. Ethan made poor decisions because he was trapped living with two women; his wife, Zeena, and his wife’s cousin, Mattie. Ethan fell in love with Mattie. When Ethan and Mattie fell in love, they made a horribly rash choice making this novel a tragedy. A tragedy in literature is wherewhen a main character or hero suffers a downfall because of a character flaw, error in judgement, or forces beyond human control. The short novel, Ethan Frome, written by Edith Wharton, is a tragedy because of Ethan Frome’s character flaws, errors in judgement and the forces beyond his control.