In Edith Wharton’s novella, Ethan Frome, the protagonist (Ethan Frome) was a prisoner to many forces. He was “trapped” in the instances of his wife, society’s affect on that relationship, poverty, his home in Starkfield, love, illness, disability, and life.
Ethan was a prisoner to his relationship with his wife, Zeena. Because Zeena took care of his mother as she was dying, Ethan felt obligated to marry her. When Mattie Silver came into the house, and he fell in love with her, Ethan felt nothing but contempt for Zeena. Society and moral desires put such a constraint on Ethan’s conscience that he resented Zeena for his passions directed toward a woman who was not his wife. As Ethan and Mattie sat at home while Zeena was away, Ethan cannot help but be reminded of his domestic duties to his wife. At the end of the story, he plans to elope and run away with Mattie, but he cannot bring himself to lie to his neighbors in order to obtain the necessary money. In the end, Ethan leaves the battle between his desires and society’s pull by choosing to abandon life itself.
Ethan was a prisoner to poverty. When he was young, Ethan longed to leave his family farm in Starkfield (and all that the town’s name suggests) by moving to a larger town to become an engineer. Lacking the monetary capability to carry out these means, Ethan was “trapped” in Starkfield for life. The family gravestones in Ethan’s yard are a frequent reminder that there is no hope for Ethan to ever escape.
Ethan was a prisoner to illness and disability. Ethan felt an obligation to marry Zenna because of his mother’s illness. Throughout their marriage, Ethan had to take care of Zeena when she felt ill (which was quite often), and he never allowed her any positive attributes because of this. He presented Mattie as the epitome of youth and beauty. Despite Ethan’s desires to be rid of one sickly woman (Zeena), he ended up with two, after Mattie nearly died in accident. Ethan also was a prisoner to his own poor health after the accident, leaving him somewhat crippled (also being a prisoner to life, considering that his attempted suicide with Mattie was a failure).
Ethan Frome was a prisoner to many aspects of his life. Although his attempt to abandon life by means of suicide was a failure, Mrs. Hale explains, “Don’t see’s there’s much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard.” With this observation, she forces one last grim realization: while there may seem to be little difference between physical death and living death, actual death contains the benefit of peace, whereas the living death – Ethan’s tragic fate – continues to torment the soul for years.
In the novella, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, Ethan’s wife, Zeena is presented seemingly as its villain. While she is actually the victim because of Ethan’s desires to commit adultery, the reader sympathizes mostly with Ethan due to the presentation of Zeena as a sickly and shrewish woman. Wharton’s descriptions of Zeena are unattractive: she presents her mostly as an old and unfeminine woman, one whom any character in Ethan’s position could not help but turn from. Much of Zeena’s role in the novel is supported by the presence of her (apparently exaggerated) illness and the reappearance of her dialogue as a complaining whine. Zeena’s faults, however, are all relayed from Ethan’s point of view, and due to his infatuation with Mattie, that viewpoint is far from impartial. Zeena eventually is the noblest of the three characters, as she not only carries on with her marriage to Ethan, but takes care of Mattie Silver for many years to come, after the accident.
Mattie Silver is the core of the turning of the plot in Ethan Frome. While Ethan’s viewpoint of her is skewed by his passions, Mattie represents youthfulness, beauty, and good health – all attributes Zeena does not posses. After the prechapter, Ethan waits outside a church in which Mattie is dancing. Wharton describes her in this scene, and various others throughout the book, to be wearing red somewhere on her person: a symbol of passion and transgression. Until the very end, it is not very apparent that Mattie returns Ethan’s passions, but it is at this point in the novella when her true self shines through. She is finally recognizable as an impulsive, melodramatic girl who is drawn to foolish thoughts like suicide. The reader, however, still recognizes Zeena as the “villain,” because a quick death with Mattie is preferable to a slow one with Zeena. The reader can recognize the rebellion and escape Mattie represents, and forgive her traits which make her the flighty, immature girl she actually is.
