Ethan Frome Theme Essay

The short story, Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton transfered the idea that with all love, conflict emerges and can possibly destroy affection. The author compiled a journey through which the main character, Ethan Frome, discovered that social ideals and expectations can contradict with one’s yearnings. Ethan Frome went through an emotional voyage over rough seas from the beginning to the end. Frome, a married man in Starkfield, a town in Massachusetts, was anchored down by his wife’s disability. Over the years, Ethan could not fulfill his own ambitions, for he was tied down by various family member’s needs. “Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. There warn’t anybody ever there but Ethan. Fust his father-then his mother-then his wife”(Wharton …show more content…
Mattie, a young, beautiful girl, attracted Ethan’s attention, and he immediately realizes that Mattie is meant for him. He pictured Mattie as liberation from his humdrum life. “He was never so happy with her as when he abandoned himself to these dreams”(Wharton 51). However, he knew that it the relationship could never happen with Zeena in the way. This formed a classic love triangle. Ethan had to decide between his grieving, ungrateful wife, and a young, careless girl. His wife, who wanted to send Mattie away, did so swiftly, leaving Ethan very little time to decide between the two. At the end, he decided to take Mattie away. At the train station, they both realized that they could not stand to leave the other. They decided to commit suicide together by driving a sled into trees. However, while they were steering the sled down the track, Ethan impromptly thinks of his wife, causing him to swerve out of the tree. “The sled swerved in response [to the image of his wife]”(Wharton 169). Later, Ethan woke up to discover that both he and Mattie are injured and slightly disabled. Zeena proceeded to take them in and care for