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“Her hair was as grey as her companions...” (95) now Mattie is being described just as “monstrous” as Zeena had been; so it’s as though fate was getting in the way of any of the three of them being happy/ this would especially be hard for Ethan because he loved her and would feel responsible for her loss of liveliness

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IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS YOU CAN PUT THEM HERE AS A COMMENT. I AM CHECKING IN. 

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IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS YOU CAN PUT THEM HERE AS A COMMENT. I AM CHECKING IN. 

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“But suddenly his wife’s face, with twisted monstrous lineaments, thrust itself between him and his goal, and he made an instinctive movement to brush it aside.” (93) This vision he gets of Zeena’s face is most likely the reason they don’t hit the tree straight on and why they survive

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“‘Get up,’ he ordered her.” (91) something about this scene and the two of the switching places seems like fate... what would have been different if he hadn’t switched?

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“There was in him a slumbering spark of sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not yet extinguished” (Wharton 37).

Shows how it’s really Starkfield’s atmosphere/weather that had dulled Ethan’s sense of connection to other people. While it may not be fully related, seasonal depression does exist, and people can be mentally affected by the weather. Ethan’s feeling of connection to other humans may have been dulled just due to his surroundings.

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“This is the night we were to go coasting...But it’s as dark as Egypt outdoors. We might go tomorrow is there’s a moon” (Wharton 49).

The darkness didn’t allow them to go coasting that night so when the next night rolls around and Mattie has to go, they go coasting and Mattie gets the idea for suicide. If they had gone coasting that night they could have skipped the suicide and hadn’t gotten badly hurt. The night pretty much predicted their fate.

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“The cat, profiting by this unusual demonstration, tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so backed into the pickle-dish, which fell to the floor in a crash” (Wharton 45).

Ultimately, the dinner would have gone well, if it weren’t for the cat - the whole pickle-dish conflict came not because of Ethan, but because of the whims of the cat

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“Ethan looked at her with loathing. She was no longer the listless creature who had lived at his side in a state of sullen self absorption, but a mysterious alien presence, an evil energy secreted from long years of silent brooding. It was the sense of his helplessness that sharpened his antipathy.” (64-65) - Ethan married Zeena so he would not be alone; definitely not out of love or even liking; Zeena’s silence made it a loveless marriage that didn’t even really bring Ethan company and now Zeena is breaking her silence after observing him and Mattie for so long, just to ruin his “chance at happiness”

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Mattie and Ethan sledded into the tree because there was no way to escape from Starkfield, since they were poor and didn't have the money to travel elsewhere.

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"He was a poor man, the husband of a sickly woman, whom his desertion would leave alone and destitute; and even if he had had the heart to desert her he could have done so only by deceiving two kindly people who had pitied him" (Wharton, 78).

Ethan is poor and knows it's wrong to abandon sick Zeena. He has no choice but to go back for he would be deceiving Zeena, who had once pitied him.

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“There the silence had deepened about him year by year”

He is getting more sad and more silent every day, which is something caused by outside influences that he has no control over.

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“When Ethan could sweat over ‘em both from sun-up to dark he kinder choked a living out of ‘em; but his folks ate up most everything and I don’t see how he makes out now.”

Ethan used to spend all of his energy on the water-mills but his folks used it all up

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“‘You ain’t got the money?’ ‘No.’ ‘And you ain’t going to get it’ ‘No.’... ‘I’m sorry, but it can’t be helped. You’re a poor man’s wife, Zeena’ (Wharton 62-63).

He’s broke lol which probably effects a lot of Ethan and Zeena’s a lot, which may cause him to be trapped in the wedding. -rithwika

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“He would have liked to linger on, watching her tidy up and then settle down to her sewing; but he wanted still more to get the hauling done and be back at the farm at night” (Wharton 36).

Ethan wants to be free to love Mattie, wants to be free of Zeena, but has an overwhelming sense of responsibility that keeps him in his cycle of discontent. This is evident earlier in the book, as Ethan pretty much lets his work on the farm and Zeena’s sickness dictate his life (he had wanted to move away, but Zeena’s sickness bound him to Starkfield).

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“[Zeena’s] skill as a nurse had been acquired by the absorbed observation of her own symptoms” (Wharton, 38)

When Ethan’s mother was sick and dying, Zeena also had the same sickness but it was just starting. This meant that as life went on, her symptoms would get worse making her like Ethans mom, sickly and needing a lot of care.

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"'Sickness and trouble, that's what Ethan's had his plate full up with, ever since the very first helping'" (Wharton 6).

Ethan seems to be stuck in a loop of sickness. First his mom, then Zeena, and then Mattie.

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“‘I’ve got complications,’ [Zeena] said” (Wharton 59).

Zeena’s life greatly influences Ethan, but Ethan cannot control the health issues that Zeena has. -rithwika

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“‘You’re a poor man’s wife, Zeena; but I’ll do the best I can for you.’” (63) - Ethan is poor by circumstance but he’s trying his best with what he has

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“Ethan Frome and Endurance his wife, who dwelled together in peace for fifty years...Then, with a sudden dart of irony, he wondered if, when their turn came, the same epitaph would be written over him and Zeena” (Wharton 43).

Ethan’s life appears to be correlated with the late Ethan Frome, who also stayed with his wife for fifty years - it seems like Ethan is almost destined to go down that same path as the late Ethan, and that he has no way to escape his fate.