Ethan_Frome

Ethan Frome In the novel Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton draws many parallels between the plot of the novel and its setting. The setting of a cold and gloomy winter makes for an inevitably cold and gloomy plot. Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie all contribute to the gloominess of this plot by either making it worse, or having the chance to improve their circumstances and not taking it. Ethan Frome, a New England farmer, is a very complex, sensitive, and emotional man, yet no one besides the reader is let in on this little secret. He feels a great deal of love towards Mattie, and a great deal of hate towards Zeena, but these feelings are unknown to the women because he cannot express them. Like most men, Ethan is afraid to express his feelings to anyone, and because of this problem, he and Mattie end up crippled and in a constant state of misery, while the one from whom they are trying to escape ends up as their caretaker. Ethan's feelings are like the sun that does not shine during this gloomy winter. And had this sun shone down on the trio, they could have ended up in a much better state than they ethan, zeena, mattie, winter, plot, cold, bitter, towards, setting, frome, between, better, state, shows, one, much, love, home, gloomy, feelings, couple, because, worse, way, unless, trying, time, taking, sun, spring, sensitivity, problem, novel, nothing, never, maybe, marriage, making, make, life, instead, hypochondriac, herself, great, express, ended, deal, crippled, constant, comes, circumstances