Her most active deed of self-definition is persuading Ethan to attempt suicide, which reveals her as rather immature, ready to give in to whatever passionate and foolish thoughts enter her head. Even in her recklessness, Mattie seems preferable to the shrewish, complaining, curmudgeonly Zeena: it is better that Ethan die a quick death with Mattie, we feel, than a slow one with Zeena.
Nevertheless, one cannot help but suspect that Mattie may not be quite worth the passion that Ethan directs her way, and that the rebellion and escape she represents are more important than the pretty, flighty, and slightly absentminded girl she actually is. Throughout the novel, Wharton foreshadows the tragedy that befalls Mattie.
Mattie feels insecure about her position at the Fromes because she senses Zeena's dislike of her. Several times she asks Ethan if Zeena's intention is to send her away. Mattie experiences an internal conflict when Zeena finally does want Mattie out of the house.
Mattie doesn't know what she will do. She isn't trained: She has no money, and no connections to help her find employment. When Ethan takes Mattie to the train station which they never reach , she declares her love for him and admits that she doesn't think she can live without Ethan. Their aborted suicide attempt transforms Mattie forever. As a result of the accident, Mattie is paralyzed from the neck down. 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. Zeena 's vivacious year-old cousin, who comes to live with the Fromes when her parents die and leave her penniless. With no education or job skills, Mattie is forced to rely on the charity of her relatives, performing menial work in return for room and board.
Her only hope of escape lies in attracting a suitor who will marry her and remove her from the Frome household, so her infatuation with Ethan is reckless, endangering her employment and her future. Mattie's red scarf and red ribbon symbolize her passionate nature.
For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:. Chapter 3 Quotes. But when Zenobia's doctor recommended her looking about for some one to help her with the house-work the clan instantly saw the chance of exacting a compensation from Mattie.
Related Themes: Gender Roles and Marriage. Page Number and Citation : 32 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Chapter 4 Quotes. She stood just as Zeena had stood, a lifted lamp in her hand, against the black background of the kitchen.
She held the light at the same level, and it drew out with the same distinctness her slim young throat and the brown wrist no bigger than a child's. Then, striking upward, it threw a lustrous fleck on her lips, edged her eyes with velvet shade, and laid a milky whiteness above the black curve of her brows. Related Themes: Duty and Morality vs.
Page Number and Citation : 43 Cite this Quote. Completely reassured, she shone on him through tear-hung lashes, and his soul swelled with pride as he saw how his tone had subdued her. She did not even ask what he had done. Except when he was steering a big log down the mountain to his mill he had never known such a thrilling sense of mastery.
Page Number and Citation : 47 Cite this Quote. Chapter 5 Quotes. It was almost as if the other face, the face of the superseded woman, had obliterated that of the intruder. Page Number and Citation : 48 Cite this Quote. Now, in the warm lamp-lit room, with all its ancient implications of conformity and order, she seemed infinitely farther away from him and more unapproachable.
Page Number and Citation : 50 Cite this Quote. Chapter 7 Quotes. Related Themes: Determinism and Free Will. Page Number and Citation : 70 Cite this Quote. Chapter 8 Quotes. The early mist had vanished and the fields lay like a silver shield under the sun.
It was one of the days when the glitter of winter shines through a pale haze of spring. Every yard of the road was alive with Mattie's presence, and there was hardly a branch against the sky or a tangle of brambles on the bank in which some bright shred of memory was not caught.
Once, in the stillness, the call of a bird in a mountain ash was so like her laughter that his heart tightened and then grew large; and all these things made him see that something must be done at once. A former stage-driver and town gossip. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained. Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics. Characters Character List. Ethan Frome The protagonist of the story, Ethan is a farmer whose family has lived and died on the same Massachusetts farm for generations.
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