Edith Wharton\'s Novel Ethan Frome:

Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome: A tragedy of circumstance and character

Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome is a story of a man whose life is partially destroyed by fate, and partially destroyed by his own character. Ethan Frome lives in a gossipy, close-knit New England town named Starkfield that is highly resistant to change. The name 'Starkfield' suggests its stark, barren quality. It is utterly forlorn, and does not provide opportunities and upward mobility for any of its inhabitants. Everyone knows everyone else and lives in the manner of their forefathers. Starkfield is utterly inflexible and unchanging in its social structure. When Ethan is first spotted by the narrator at the beginning of Wharton's novel, he looks like an old man, despite the fact he is only middle-aged. His family is utterly bound to Starkfield and well-known. Says one long-time resident, with wisdom: "The Fromes are tough. Ethan'll likely touch a hundred…Guess he's been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away" (Wharton 5). However, Ethan's inability to extricate himself from the town and his life is also partially due to his own character and the limits of his strength of will to question the mores of his society.

Ethan's conventional character is first manifested in his decision to marry his first wife, Zeena. Zeena helps Ethan while he is nursing his ailing mother. Out of foolish loyalty to the memory of his mother and a sense of obligation, Ethan marries Zeena. He unwittingly ties himself to a sickly woman who will prove to be a drag upon his spirit and his entire existence, and he seems unable to leave Zeena. From early on, Ethan Frome's life has been a never-ending circle of care: "There warn't ever anybody but Ethan [to care for people]. Fust his father- then his mother- then his wife" (Wharton 5). Ethan seems destined to act as a tender of the sick in a manner that saps his energy. It is noteworthy that despite his intelligence he seems unable to 'get away.' Although the locals view his fate as a natural one, Ethan is partially complicit in refusing to look beyond the confines of his town, except in his fantasy life.

The one breath of fresh air in Ethan's life when he was a young man was Mattie Silver, Zeena's cousin. The reader learns about Mattie in a series of flashbacks. Zeena quickly intuited Ethan's feelings for Mattie and soured to the girl. Mattie was young and went out twice a week during the evenings, and it was Ethan's obligation to walk her home safely. Mattie often went dancing, and when watching Mattie dance, Ethan was able to see a sliver of the kind of life that he could have enjoyed, if he had not married Zeena. Mattie's joy and the fact that she did not complain was stark contrast with his wife's attitude. "She don't look much on housework, but she ain't a fretter, anyhow" (Wharton 29). Zeena was tormented with the thoughts of what was going on between Ethan and Mattie, even though the lover's passion was only expressed through kisses. Ethan was unable to leave with Mattie, blaming Zeena's health, although Zeena seemed to conveniently feel more ill whenever it suited her, and recovered when it pleased her. "Frome had to admit that, if she [Zeena] were as ailing as she believed, she needed the help of a stronger arm than the one which lay so lightly in his during the night walks to the farm" (Wharton 31).

Although he was strong, with intellectual ambitions, Ethan could not bring himself to violate social conventions as a young man. Ethan's studies were left unfinished because of his familial obligations and he never resumed them. He felt resentful at times of Mattie's youthful exuberance, as if her carefree nature and the fact that she did not feel a need to worry about what others thought and said was a reproach of his own values, the cross he chose to bear for his family and later his wife: "her [Mattie's] gaiety seemed plain proof of indifference' (Wharton 31). However, instead of taking logical steps to extricate himself from Zeena's grasp, and defying the norms of his society by running away with Mattie, Ethan acted impulsively. When Mattie was about to leave his home, the two decided instead to take a suicidal sled ride into a tree. The suicide was bungled, and both Ethan and Mattie were physically, emotionally, and spiritually broken by the accident.

Wharton's narrator makes it clear that because of the accident, neither Ethan nor Mattie will ever be able to leave Starkfield. Their emotional difficulties at leaving the small town are now physically manifested in their broken bodies. Ironically (although unsurprisingly in the eyes of the reader), Zeena recovers after the accident, and is able to tend to both her husband and her cousin with little assistance.

Ethan's decision to try to kill himself and Mattie seems uncharacteristic at first, given his methodical, plodding character. But it is very much in character if the reader understands it as a way for Ethan to extricate himself of the need to make a change in his life. If he escaped with Mattie, he would have to begin a new life, and embrace new values beyond that he had learned in Starkfield. He would have to cease to care what people said about him. Ethan seems to wish to leave untenable circumstances through suicide, but he unconsciously recreates the cycle of caretaking and illness that gave birth to his relationship with Zeena Even death, given the long-lived nature of the Fromes, seems unlikely.