Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up. Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Struggling with distance learning? Our Teacher Edition on Ethan Frome can help. Themes All Themes.
Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ethan Frome , which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
After supper, Mattie sews while Ethan smokes his pipe and sits by the fire. Ethan wishes this scene of domestic bliss would go on forever. But he can't see Mattie where she is sitting so he tells her to sit in Zeena 's rocking-chair. When she does, Ethan is unsettled to see Zeena's face superimposed on Mattie's. He agonizes, wondering if Mattie could ever love him. When he is around Mattie , Ethan feels a sense of mastery.
For example, he feels protective of Mattie ; he feels authoritative, important, and needed. Any mention of Zeena's name leads to awkwardness, and Ethan pretends to be famished so he can eat rather than talk.
The cat knocks over the pickle-dish, shattering it, and Mattie is thrown into a panic: it is a fine red dish, one of Zeena's wedding gifts. Mattie in Love As a young woman, Mattie seems to be truly in love with Ethan. Everything from turning down Denis Eady to declaring her love indicates that her affection for Ethan is sincere.
If she simply wanted an easy way out of poverty, she could have married Denis Eady and been mistress to the Eady grocery fortune. Within Edith Wharton's novel Ethan Frome there is one consistent ideal that stands out, the ideal of human suffering. Ethan Frome is chained to his horrible, nagging wife Zeena and has to take care of her constantly.
When they were still young, Ethan and his cousin Mattie attempted suicide together. Ethan's wife, Zeena, wanted Mattie to leave, suspecting that her husband had fallen in love with Mattie. Ethan and Mattie responded by trying to kill themselves by ramming their sled into an elm tree. The accident failed to kill them. Ethan married Zeena because he was afraid of silence, just as his mother was.
The Fromes appear to suffer from a fear of loneliness, which causes them to make poor decisions. Wharton implies that Zeena got "ill" because she couldn't bear moving to a larger town where Ethan would be out of her control.
Major themes in Ethan Frome include silence, isolation, illusion, and the consequences that are the result of living according to the rules of society. Wharton relies on personal experiences to relate her thematic messages. Why did Ethan and Zeena remain in Starkfield after their marriage?
As opposed to her living in a big city where people would look down on her instead. Throughout Ethan Frome, the color red attributes to Mattie Silver and the sun. Red represents the color of life—of blood, fire, passion, and war. Red also represents danger and warning as well as the color of hellfire and damnation. Mattie Silver - Zeena's cousin, who comes to assist the Fromes with their domestic tasks.
Attractive, young, and energetic, Mattie becomes the object of Ethan's affection, and reciprocates his infatuation. Ethan Frome is basically the epitome of a good thing gone bad due to back luck, rather than to bad choices. Mattie by the fire, sewing, and he is now puffing the pipe, stretching the hard-working legs. Ethan can't see Mattie where she's sitting so he suggests that she sit in Zeena's chair.
Actually Mattie gets up and sits in the chair. This turns out to a bad idea. It's almost as if as if Mattie turns into Zeena.
Mattie also seems to feel uncomfortable about this arrangement and goes back to her initial position. Ethan steals glances at her from his spot. The cat takes over Zeena's chair. As the quiet sets in they relax and talk. Ethan reminds Mattie that they had a coasting date for tonight. Because there is no moon, they decide to postpone sledding for the following evening. Mattie is blushing furiously. Ethan asks her if she would be too afraid to sled with him on a moonless night.
She says she's scared of nothing. He says that he is actually afraid. Sledding on a moonless night is a good way to die. In the dark there is no way to see the killer elm tree. Ethan decides to tell Mattie that he saw Ruth being kissed. All night he'd wanted to tell her, but regret was instant.
It sounded rough and rude, and triggered more intense blushing from Mattie.
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