The novel “Ethan Frome” by Edith Wharton is set in the fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts in the early 1900s. The story is told from a third person view of an engineer working a job at Corbury Junction and tells the story with a rather gloomy mood. Hard-working and young twenty-one-year-old Ethan Frome marries a slightly older twenty-eight-year-old Zeena Frome who watched over and cared for Ethan’s mother before she died. Following the death of his mother, Ethan desperately wanted to move away from the lonesome town of Starkfield, Massachusetts in hopes of a “new beginning”. However, his wife Zeena insisted they stay in Starkfield because of Zeena’s fear of having little to no status in a big city and due to Ethan’s fear of loneliness he agreed to stay with her.
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With Ethan working constantly at the Farm to make ends meet, it became apparent to the Frome’s that they were in desperate need of some extra help. Coincidently, Zeena’s cousin Mattie Silver was looking for somewhere to stay since she had been turned away by many other friends and relatives because her father had cheated them during various business interactions. None of Mattie’s friends or family had any interest in helping her financially which ultimately left Mattie with a feeling of helplessness, a feeling in which the Frome’s were very familiar with. Within moments of seeing Mattie for the first time, Ethan Frome instantly knew what he wanted, even with the many obstacles in the way. At first, the feelings were mutual as Ethan was very shy and skeptical of any possibility to be close to her like he wanted to be. Yet Ethan’s desires drove him further to pursue his interest in Mattie. The two of them got closer as they had more and more opportunities to be close to each other without
With Ethan working constantly at the Farm to make ends meet, it became apparent to the Frome’s that they were in desperate need of some extra help. Coincidently, Zeena’s cousin Mattie Silver was looking for somewhere to stay since she had been turned away by many other friends and relatives because her father had cheated them during various business interactions. None of Mattie’s friends or family had any interest in helping her financially which ultimately left Mattie with a feeling of helplessness, a feeling in which the Frome’s were very familiar with. Within moments of seeing Mattie for the first time, Ethan Frome instantly knew what he wanted, even with the many obstacles in the way. At first, the feelings were mutual as Ethan was very shy and skeptical of any possibility to be close to her like he wanted to be. Yet Ethan’s desires drove him further to pursue his interest in Mattie. The two of them got closer as they had more and more opportunities to be close to each other without