Ethan Frome

Question 1

Basic Facts

Answer 1

• Edith Wharton - New York
• 1911
• Novel

Question 2

Plot Summary

Answer 2

• Ethan is a cripple and living with Zeena who takes care of him
• Young Ethan goes to dance with his wifes cousin Mattie Silver
• Ethan falls in love with Mattie whilst Zeena is away
• Zeena sends Mattie away and Ethan takes her sledging on the way to the station
• They hit tree - Ethan is crippled and Mattie is invalid

Question 3

Theme - Colour

Answer 3

• Mattie wears bright red scarf - Cheerful and vibrant, like her
• Mattie “Silver” - like her
• Contrast between “sullen” and “cold looking” Zeena and Mattie, “a vision of red”
• breaking off Zeena’s red dish symbolises breaking of Zeena and Ethans relationship and disintegration of Mattie’s passionate nature

Question 4

Theme - Isolation

Answer 4

• location of Frome’s farmhouse shows how isolated the Frome’s are
• Condition of Frome’s farmhouse indicates the condition of Ethans relationships and life
• “the coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth” - shows Mattie’s arrival alleviated loneliness
• Elm tree Ethan and Mattie go into symbolises barriers to leaving Starkfield

Question 5

Character - Ethan Frome

Answer 5

• Protagonist
• a “ruin of a man” - loneliness
• Married to Zeena, but loves Mattie when she arrives
• miserable - loneliness? - Mattie cures this

Question 6

Zeena Frome

Answer 6

• Ethans wife
• sickly
• symbolises the burden upon Ethan
• “There had never been anything in her that one could appeal to”
• “mysterious alien presence”
• “You’re a bad girl Mattie Silver, and I always known it” - after Mattie breaks her pickle dish - metaphor for relationship

Question 7

Character - Mattie Silver

Answer 7

• Zeena Frome’s cousin
• moved to Starkfield to help Zeena
• “A vision of red” - bright and cheerful compared to Zeena
• ## “crimson bow” - red is colour of the devil in puritan times

Question 8

Theme - Love

Answer 8

• ## Mattie and Ethan decide that attempted suicide is better than being apart - “whats the good of either of us going anywheres without the other one now” - “So ‘t we’d never have to leave each other anymore”

Question 9

General Quotes

Answer 9

• ## “Guess hes been in Starkfield too many winters. Most of the smart ones get away” - shows what loneliness does to people

Question 10

Theme - Environment

Answer 10

• “sunless cold” - insinuates oppressive nature
• “mute melancholy” - alliteration parallels the condition of characters
• “vitality of the climate” - “deadness community” - juxtaposition shows initial beauty and overwhelming wintery environment