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“‘I’ve been in a dream, and this is the only evening we’ll ever have together.’ The return to reality was as painful as the return to consciousness after taking an anesthetic. His body and brain ached with indescribable weariness.”

He continues to feel sorry for himself, wishing the dream could last longer whilst he is just sitting there letting it pass him by.

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"He knew that Zeena must be wondering why he did not offer to drive her to the Flats... then he said: 'I'd take you over myself, only I've got to collect the cash for the lumber'... the words... were untrue."

Ethan chooses to lie to Zeena here, showing his lack of morals. He is also allowing his feelings for Mattie to grow. So it is Ethan's own fault that he loves Mattie.

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"'I guess we'll never let you go, Matt,' he whispered, as though even the dead, lovers once, must conspire with him to keep her; and brushing by the graves, he thought: 'We'll always go on living here together, and some day she'll lie there beside me" (Wharton 21).

Zeena is not the one keeping Mattie here, Ethan is. He is also the one showing affection and emotion towards Mattie when she is hiding it. Ethan is also the one fantasizing about them being buried together in this passage.

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IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS, YOU CAN WRITE A RESPONSE HERE OR EMAIL ME. I AM CHECKING IN. 

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IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTIONS, YOU CAN WRITE A RESPONSE HERE OR EMAIL ME. I AM CHECKING IN. 

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Ethan was always too passive in acting for what he wanted whether it was pursuing Mattie, or going to the city to become an engineer. Although Ethan and Zeena had planned to sell the farm and sawmill and go down to the city, Zeena had decided that it would be bad for her, and Ethan went along with it, believing that Zeena was probably right. “He had always wanted to become an engineer, and to live in towns, where there were lectures and big libraries and ‘fellows doing things’” Ethan’s mind was so easily changed even when his instincts told him the opposite. He had known, for example, that they didn’t have enough money to send Zeena to the doctor again, but had easily given in when he was told that he was a bad listener.

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"It was a fact that since Mattie Silver's coming he had taken to shaving everyday"(Wharton 16).

This proves how he was the one making his appearance better and showing his affection to Mattie, which is why he got stuck with her,

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Ethan could have just got what he wanted and divorced Zeena so he could marry Mattie but he was too afraid to do it so he just buried his problems for 7 years until Mattie came. He then neglected his problems for another year, never assuming Mattie would have to leave. When she did have to leave, he tried to solve his problems with suicide when there were other ways.

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“With them came the hated vision of the house he was going back to—of the stairs he would have to go up every night, of the woman who would wait for him there” (Page 90).

Although Ethan is unhappy with his marriage with Zeena and his finances, he should have brought light into the situation. By being so against everything in his life, and always being so glum, it affects the way the people around him act as well. Ethan could have made the best of his situation, but instead he tried to make his way out of it which ultimately failed.

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When Zeena asks Ethan if he is going to drive her to the train so she can go see the doctor and he lies to her so he does not have to take your over-
“I’d take you over myself, only I’ve got to collect the cash for the lumber.”
This shows how Ethan is going against his morals and his honest ways by lying to Zeena about a very important thing that she needs to survive just so he can be with Mattie

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"'Your neglecting the farm enough already."' Ethan doesn't take care of what he needs and doesn't get work done.

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“Ethan stood looking at her, is heart in his throat. He wanted to say: “We shall never be alone again like this.” Instead, he reached down his tobacco-pouch from a shelf of the dresser, put it into his pocket and said: “I guess I can make out to be home for dinner.”

He isn’t trying to change anything, he is simply letting the world pass him by. He is not actively benefiting his own cause by refusing to do anything. He doesn’t act on Zeena or Mattie.

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"The fact that he had no right to show his feelings, and thus provoke the expression of hers, made him attach a fantastic importance to every change in her look and tone."

Ethan does not want to stop his thoughts about Mattie. This shows that he lacks morals because loving Mattie is morally wrong because he is already married . He is choosing to let himself keep feeling that way about her, which causes problems for himself.

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"I wondered less at his wors than at the queer note of resentment in his voice. He was evidently surprised and slightly aggrieved at his own ignorance. 'Does that sort of thing interest you?' I asked. 'It used to' (Wharton 6).

This is when the narrator talks about a science book with
Ethan. Later in the book Ethan mentions that he almost went into a field of science but instead he got stuck on the farm.

"Four or five years earlier he had taken a year's course at technological college at Worchester...His father's death and musfortunes following it, has put a premature end to Ethan;s studies,")Wharton 11)

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“Ethan had imagined that his allusion might open the way to the accepted pleasantries, and these perhaps in turn to a harmless caress, if only a mere touch on her hand.” Ethan was trying to grow closer to Mattie, and is knowingly hurting his relationship with Zeena. He doesn’t know how to deal with problems in a relationship.

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"He did his best to supplement her unskilled efforts, getting up earlier than usual to light the kitchen fire, carrying in the wood overnight, and neglecting the mill or the farm that he might help her about the house."

By choosing to help and get closer to Mattie, Ethan is making it easier for him to catch feelings for her. And by loving another woman, he is also making his relationship with Zeena worse.
His problems are his own fault because he made choices that allowed him to have feelings for Mattie.

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Jaden - Another key moment would be when Ethan tries and does hit the elm tree so that he can take his own life. It shows that Ethan has decided that he can no reverse his mistakes from the past and therefor he is responsible for his current situation.

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“Confused impulses struggled in him as he strode along to the village. He had made up his mind to do something, but he did not know what it would be.” (Page 76)

Ethan constantly does not know what he wants or how to get about it. He is constantly swayed by other people such as Zeena and Mattie, and although this can be a good thing at times, he also needs to learn how to make his own decisions and to trust his gut. His constant wariness and uncertainty was one of the factors that led to the demise of his marriage with Zeena. His actions and uncertain personality makes him responsible for the situation he is in.
—Daphne

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"'Well, matters ain't gone any too well with him,' Harmon said. 'When a man's been setting round like a hulk for twenty years or more, seeing things that want doing, it easts inter him, and he loses hus grit'(Wharton 5).

This shows that Ethan just spends his days fixing things in the house rather than other things. This causes him to be less motivated and stay in the house etc.

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“It was only when she drew toward her last illness, and his cousin Zenobia Pierce came ver from the next valley to help him nurse her.”

He lives in an endless cycle, his mother became ill and they hired Zeena and he fell for her. Then Zeena became ill and they hired Mattie and then he fell for her. Had he not just taken care of his mother neither would have happened. He also eventually turned Zeena into a melancholic grump and he did the same to Mattie. He is affecting those around him.

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“All his life was lived in the sight and sound of Mattie Silver, and he could no longer conceive of its being otherwise.”
This shows that Ethan is weak and controlled by Mattie and that he only wants to be with her in his life and this desire caused him to try to commit suicide with her leading to him being the way he is at the end of the book.

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"'I'm a great deal sicker than you think.' Her words fell on his ear with a strange shock of wonder. He had often heard her pronounce them before-what if at last they were true?"
Zeena has told Ethan many times about her sickness but instead of doing something about it, he just hopes they are true and waits for her to die.

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Jaden - one key moment that I think makes Ethan responsible for his situation is when he lied to Zeena about asking Andrew Hall (his boss i think) for money. He did not get the money and therefore lied to Zeena that he had money to pay for another girl to live at there house