A Merely Lifestyle In Wharton's Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome is a complex man of many talents with terrible luck, who has chosen to do good by his family instead of chasing after his own dreams. Is Ethan's life and where he is a victim of his own choices or is it his surroundings that are to blame for his dreary life style. In my honest opinion i believe that Ethan suffers from both his surroundings and himself when you have to chose a reason or reasons for Ethan's situation in life.
Ethan's life style is to blame because of his own decisions for three big reasons. First is how Ethan chose to marry Zeena after she was caretaker for his mother. Ethan chose to marry Zeena because she gave him hope and lit his life up with new purpose, that was until she started suffering from her own “illness” and turned bitter against Ethan. My next reason is how Ethan once again made a decision to chase after Mattie Silver, a cousin who was brought to town after her parents death to help Zeena with daily chores. Mattie soon proves to be to much for Ethan to deny in his life because she now gives him reasons to love again after his mistake with Zeena. It was Ethan's choice to pursue Mattie who made him feel again, instead of taking the easy way out and staying with his wife Zeena. Lastly is Ethan's own failure …show more content…
First is how he gave up his dreams of being an engineer and moving to a big city that was partially his fault but it is also Zeena's fault because she was to weak to move out of Starkville. Second is instead of telling Zeena that he would prefer to be with Mattie instead of staying with Zeena, Ethan made a huge mistake that harmed himself and another. Lastly is that Ethan attempted to kill himself with Mattie because they didn't want to live apart from one another. This ended up causing Ethan use of his arm and Mattie her radiant character and beauty, turning Mattie into something more like