Ethan Frome Test

Question 1

takes care of sick Fromes (Ethan and Mattie)

Answer 1

Zeena

Question 2

goes to the post office everyday

Answer 2

Ethan

Question 3

has a romantic interest in Mattie

Answer 3

Ethan

Question 4

symbolic of the pickle dish

Answer 4

Ethan

Question 5

left penniless by father

Answer 5

Mattie

Question 6

very “ill” and visits numerous doctors

Answer 6

Zeena

Question 7

tries to repair pickle dish before Zeena returns

Answer 7

Ethan

Question 8

becomes fascinated with Frome

Answer 8

Narrator

Question 9

lies about getting paid in advance

Answer 9

Ethan

Question 10

forced to stay overnight on the farm

Answer 10

Narrator

Question 11

quit college for family reasons

Answer 11

Ethan

Question 12

wants Mattie to leave

Answer 12

Zeena

Question 13

helps Mattie move her trunk

Answer 13

Ethan

Question 14

refuses to give Ethan an advance

Answer 14

Andrew Hale

Question 15

took Zeena to the train station

Answer 15

Jotham Powell

Question 16

shares his copy of Popular Mechanics

Answer 16

Narrator

Question 17

refuses to abandon Zeena

Answer 17

Ethan

Question 18

sells her piano

Answer 18

Mattie

Question 19

refuses to stay for dinner at the Fromes

Answer 19

Jotham Powell

Question 20

falls in love with a married man

Answer 20

Mattie

Question 21

What are 5 of the major themes?

Answer 21

Passion, Determinism/Naturalism, Land/People, Isolation, Poverty, Lost Potential, Loss and Transience

Question 22

What is the setting?

Answer 22

rural setting, New England winter in Starkfield, Massachusetts

Question 23

Define Naturalism

Answer 23

Naturalism was a literary movement in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s that produced a unique type of realistic fiction. It developed out of realism. It is essentially realism, but it has one additional facet-Determinism which is the belief that characters don’t have free will. Naturalists viewed individuals as being at the mercy of biological and socioeconomic forces.

Question 24

What frames the story?

Answer 24

The story is framed by an anonymous first person narrator who is fascinated by Ethan after he spots him outside the post office. He searches for sources of information about Ethan from Harmon Gow, Mrs. Ned Hale, and Denis Eady. There is a large distance between the audience and the story.

Question 25

What is an extension of Starkfield?

Answer 25

the Frome farm. It mirrors the town’s name. It provides only the bare minimum for Frome and his family.

Question 26

Define Determinism

Answer 26

the belief that characters don’t have free will; external and internal forces control their behavior; characters attempting to exercise free will are derailed by forces beyond their control; things happen to characters as if they were puppets whose movements are entirely determined by forces beyond their control.

Question 27

What is Ethan’s tragic flaw?

Answer 27

His honor; he’s an honorable man; he will not abandon Zeena, he won’t deceive the Hales. his honor is not truly a free choice. He can only be honorable with the constraints of his life. He’s not in control. his honor makes him easier to sympathize with.

Question 28

What can Ethan not get in time?

Answer 28

glue

Question 29

Who does Ethan feel like he owes?

Answer 29

Zeena

Question 30

How are each of the 3 characters trapped by poverty?

Answer 30

Ethan can’t leave the farm. He has no education due to his family’s poverty. Zeena is too ill to provide for herself and Ethan is not heartless enough to leave her. Mattie is destitute and must rely on her cousin’s family for financial support.

Question 31

How does Zeena foreshadow Mattie?

Answer 31

Zeena’s story foreshadows Mattie’s future. Zeena was once a vibrant and lovely young woman. She is no longer due to the harsh life on Frome farm. Mattie’s actions are parallel to Zeena. They both came to care for someone, both are not financially fit to be on their own without Ethan, and both were once bright and livley but they soon became old hags.

Question 32

Give an example of environment’s power over man

Answer 32

The horse falling and cutting its knee and the sleet makes work slow. This is why Ethan couldn’t get the glue in time. He is too powerless to do anything about the weather.

Question 33

2 examples of how Ethan is the pickle dish

Answer 33

Zeena possesses and clings to Ethan as she does with the pickles dish. When she verbally attacks Mattie, it’s hard to tell if she’s speaking about the dish or Ethan. She says the phrase, “The one I cared for most of all”. She uses “took” instead of “broke” and “the one” instead of “the thing”. This is like she’s talking about a person instead of a pickle dish.

Question 34

How is the foreshadowing finally revealed in chapter 9?

Answer 34

The reader already knew that Ethan had a terrible accident and that he lived through it.

Question 35

How is chapter 10 Zeena’s chapter?

Answer 35

She is forced to care for Ethan and Mattie just like she was for Ethan’s mom. She doesn’t do this out of selflessness or compassion. She no longer suffers because she doesn’t have time to suffer. Zeena can now afford to care for these two because she no longer worries about losing her husband. She is in complete control. Ethan needs her now and Mattie no longer poses a threat. All is stable and fixed just like Zeena wants it to be.

Question 36

What do the cat and mouse represent?

Answer 36

Ethan’s game with Mattie; he wants to know her feelings, but he is too reserved to be direct

Question 37

What do the cat and rocking chair represent.

Answer 37

The cat is Zeena watching them and the rocking chair represents guilt being brought on by the environment and domestic order that overpowers Ethan’s passion.

Question 38

What does the red pickle dish represent?

Answer 38

it’s a symbol of the Frome’s marriage. It breaking is symbolic of the lost of passion that their marriage has experienced. Being broken by a cat, an intruder to the table, is a symbol that the Frome marriage is being broken by someone who is an intruder in their home.

Question 39

What does the sled ride represent?

Answer 39

free will and fate don’t matter (naturalism). Ethan doesn’t steer the sled, the track does (gravity and the slope). Nature is in control and is a force. It doesn’t matter what Ethan does, his fate is already determined.

Question 40

What does the dilapidated kitchen represent?

Answer 40

poverty, which is a soul destroyer. Ethan is forced from happiness again and again. Mattie is a crippled hag who can’t leave. it represents how the people too have dilapidated with age. Time is a waster.