What happens in chapter 2 of Ethan Frome?
Beginning the hike home, Ethan continues to wonder about Mattie’s feelings toward Eady and decides to press the issue by needling Mattie about her behavior at the dance. But his roundabout fashion of pursuing the conversation only leads Mattie to believe that Ethan’s wife, Zeena, is on the verge of dismissing her.
What happens in chapter 3 of Ethan Frome?
Ethan quickly agrees to Zeena’s proposal that Jotham Powell, the hired man, drive her to the train station. He would drive her himself, he says, but he must collect a direct cash payment from Andrew Hale upon his delivery of a load of wood that afternoon.
What happens in chapter 9 of Ethan Frome?
Ethan stops the sleigh in a pine wood and helps Mattie down. As they walk together through the wintry landscape, they remember their encounter of the previous summer at a church picnic on this very spot, where Ethan found a lost gold locket of Mattie’s.
What interest does Ethan share with Mattie?
love of nature
Ethan and Mattie share a love of nature, and during the walk he likes to point out the constellations to her and impress her with his knowledge. 19th-century America offered few employment opportunities for uneducated single women. As an orphan with no inheritance, Mattie is dependent on her relatives for support.
What happens in the prologue of Ethan Frome?
The prologue not only introduces The Narrator, but also describes Starkfield and the winter setting, inhabitants of Starkfield, and provokes curiosity about the tragedy experienced by Ethan Frome.
Who takes care of Mattie at the end of the movie?
Responding to the narrator’s gentle queries, Mrs. Hale explains that Mattie has lived with the Fromes ever since and that Zeena has done much of the caretaking for the three of them.
How old are Ethan and Zeena in Chapter 3?
Ethan is looking at Mattie while Zeena is talking to him, but manages to tear his eyes away and face his wife. Zeena is only thirty-five to Ethan’s twenty-eight, but “she [is] already an old woman” (3.18).
What is the irony at the end of Ethan Frome?
Following his mother’s unfortunate death, left with only Zeena, Ethan asked her to stay with him, simply to avoid loneliness; the irony here is that, within one year, Zeena became sickly and silent, just like his mother! The love between Ethan and Mattie itself was unsuccessful, never meant to happen.
Why is Mattie crying at the beginning of Chapter 9?
Back in the kitchen, Ethan finds Zeena reading a book about kidney problems. Mattie apparently is moving her trunk. Appalled that she is moving the heavy thing without manly aid, Ethan jumps up to go help her. He finds her crying in her room.
What happens in the last chapter of Ethan Frome?
Instead of finding escape in suicide, he and Mattie have ended up in a state of living death, in which all Mattie’s vitality has been leeched away, and she has transformed into a carbon copy of her former opposite, Zeena.
Who is speaking in the final chapter of Ethan Frome?
From the neutral narrator’s description, it is initially difficult to tell which woman is which, and when we hear that one speaks in a “whine,” the word Wharton uses earlier to describe Zeena’s voice, we assume that this complainer is Zeena—only to realize, with a trace of horror, that the voice belongs to Mattie.
How did Ethan from end?
What does Zeena blame for her loss of health?
Zeena is exempt from any responsibility for her illness. In fact, she blames Ethan for her illness, claiming that she lost her health to take care of Ethan’s mother: “You grudged the money to get back my health, when I lost it nursing your own mother!” (p. 80). novel; Mattie can no longer be Zeena’s housekeeper.
What happens to Mattie at the end of Ethan Frome?
What is the plot of Ethan Frome?
Plot Overview. Finding himself laid up in the small New England town of Starkfield for the winter, the narrator sets out to learn about the life of a mysterious local named Ethan Frome, who had a tragic accident some twenty years earlier.
How do I Track themes in Ethan Frome?
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Ethan Frome, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. The Narrator ‘s “vision” of Ethan Frome’s story , told in the third person, begins. It is winter in Starkfield. Young Ethan Frome walks through the deep snow to the church where a dance is being held.
Where does Ethan Frome go in winter?
It is winter in Starkfield. Young Ethan Frome walks through the deep snow to the church where a dance is being held.
What happens at midnight in Ethan Frome?
At midnight, through an accumulated snowfall of some two feet, a young Ethan Frome walks the quiet streets of Starkfield. Near the edge of the village, he stops in front of the community church, where a dance is being held.