Ethan Frome: Who Is to Blame?
Who is to blame?
Love is supposedly such a strong force that a couple would die to be together
forever. The force that traps the escape of love and living happily together for a couple
is almost just as strong. In Ethan Frome, Ethan falls out of love with his wife Zeena and
into love with his house girl Mattie. Throughout their year together Ethan is finally able
to express his love for science and talk about what he feels is important with his one
true love Mattie. When Mattie is asked to leave, Ethan and Mattie find themselves in a
compromising position, they can’t afford to run away together, they also can’t live apart.
They feel the only remedy to stay with each other forever would be to commit suicide
together.
Zeena is clearly partially to blame for driving Mattie and Ethan to an attempt
at suicide. Zeena came to Ethan’s house to care for his sickly mother who was dying
and in need of female assistance. After caring for his mother, Ethan and Zeena fell into
what seems like a state of lust for each other and decided to get married. Whether it
was true love or Ethan feeling that he needed to repay Zeena for her help, they found
themselves bound in matrimony for the rest of their lives. Zeena quickly became sick
and blamed it on her care for Ethan’s mother. She was convinced that she caught
whatever “complications”, which were serious and sometimes considered fatal from
Ethan’s mother. “Complications, to have them was in itself a distinction, though it was
also, in most cases a death warrant. (pg88)”. Zeena hardly ever left her bed except to
spend what little money Ethan was earning at a new doctor in a different town. Zeena
drove their marriage down the drain when she wouldn’t do anything for herself and made
Ethan wait at her hand and foot. Ethan needed help, and Zeena’s cousin Mattie was in
search of a place to live and in debt to the Frome’s. It seemed like a perfect idea, they
would
Love is supposedly such a strong force that a couple would die to be together
forever. The force that traps the escape of love and living happily together for a couple
is almost just as strong. In Ethan Frome, Ethan falls out of love with his wife Zeena and
into love with his house girl Mattie. Throughout their year together Ethan is finally able
to express his love for science and talk about what he feels is important with his one
true love Mattie. When Mattie is asked to leave, Ethan and Mattie find themselves in a
compromising position, they can’t afford to run away together, they also can’t live apart.
They feel the only remedy to stay with each other forever would be to commit suicide
together.
Zeena is clearly partially to blame for driving Mattie and Ethan to an attempt
at suicide. Zeena came to Ethan’s house to care for his sickly mother who was dying
and in need of female assistance. After caring for his mother, Ethan and Zeena fell into
what seems like a state of lust for each other and decided to get married. Whether it
was true love or Ethan feeling that he needed to repay Zeena for her help, they found
themselves bound in matrimony for the rest of their lives. Zeena quickly became sick
and blamed it on her care for Ethan’s mother. She was convinced that she caught
whatever “complications”, which were serious and sometimes considered fatal from
Ethan’s mother. “Complications, to have them was in itself a distinction, though it was
also, in most cases a death warrant. (pg88)”. Zeena hardly ever left her bed except to
spend what little money Ethan was earning at a new doctor in a different town. Zeena
drove their marriage down the drain when she wouldn’t do anything for herself and made
Ethan wait at her hand and foot. Ethan needed help, and Zeena’s cousin Mattie was in
search of a place to live and in debt to the Frome’s. It seemed like a perfect idea, they
would