Starkfield In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

“If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins of his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade: and you must have asked who he was.” (pg.3)
This describes how Starkfield is a very small town, and everyone seems to know everything about everyone, there are no secrets. Everything is very united. This is important because it gives the effect to the readers to imagine what living in a small town feels like.

“But when winter shut down on Starkfield, and the village lay under a sheet of snow perpetually renewed from the pale skies, I began to see what life there- or rather its negation- must have
Though she was but seven years her husband’s senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was already an old woman.”(pg.57)
Zeena’s appearance, although she isn’t the prettiest to begin with, the harsh winters completely draw out her worst features. This ties together another reason why Ethan doesn’t really want to be with her and rather be with Mattie who brightens the winter.

“After the December snows were over, a blazing blue sky poured down torrents of light and air on the white landscape, which gave them back an intenser glitter. One would have supposed that such an atmosphere must quicken the emotions as well as the blood; but it seemed to produce no change except that of retarding still more the sluggish pulse of Starkfield.” (pg. 7-8)
As the winter went away, the atmosphere came alive and people began to come out of reclusion. But, it takes time because the people there are so used to the harsh winters of not being able to do anything. This is important because it really does show the readers how much the people in Starkfield