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"... the Frome grave-stones slanted at crazy angles through the snow. Ethan looked at them curiously. For years that quiet company had mocked his restlessness, his desire for change and freedom. "We never got away---how should you?" seemed to be written on every headstone..." (Wharton p.32)

This little section of the novel represents how Frome feels trapped within his home and his relationship with Zeena. He thinks there is no room for change and that with her he has no freedom or escape, which is why he is slowly falling for Mattie. She makes him feel alive in a way that Zeena no longer does.

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"I told you I ain't the kind to be afraid.." -Mattie (pg.30)
This quote says a lot about Mattie and her character that she's been through something in life that allowed her to now be able to go through it without fear of anything.

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"You'd have found me right off if you hadn't gone back to have that last reel with Denis," he brought out awkwardly.

ethan says this to see if mattie has feelings for him.he says this as a way of manipulation, saying something that makes the other person think differently than he does himself

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"we'll always go on living here together , and someday she'll lie there beside me .he let the vision posses him as they climber the hill to the house . he was never so happy with her as when he abandoned himself to these dreams. This quote shows that he thinks about life with her and in the prologue he is very sad and lifeless but he expresses that he is the happiest when he is around her. when he is with her he feels happy.

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"There was one day, about a week after the incident, when they all thought Mattie couldn't live. Well, I say it's a pity she did . . . "

The quote is significant because Ethan is not only having to deal with his sick wife, Zeena, but also Mattie.

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"Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp. The light, on a level with her chin, drew out of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its ring of crimping-pins... He felt as if he had never before known what his wife looked like."
This quote from chapter two is significant as it depicts the image of Ethan's wife, Zeena. The quote is pact with heavy imagery showing characteristics of Zeena being unfeminine as well as unappealing to one.

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"...;but now he felt as heavy and loutish as in his student days, when he had tried to "jolly" the Worcester girls at a picnic."
Its a simile comparing how nervous he feels now to how he felt when he was a young student

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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 beside me."
(chp. 2 pg. 24)

This shows how Ethan Frome is planning on being with Mattie soon. He wants to live with her and probably die with because he is so in love with her. Even later on in the page Ethan talks about the possibilities of Zeena's death, so if she is gone he can be with Mattie.

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"No. I felt so mean I couldn't sleep" Zeena didn't put the key out there on purpose because she has suspicions of Ethan and Mattie.

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" I guess I won't come up for awhile," he said, turning as if to go back to the kitchen. Zeena stopped short and looked at him. "For the land's sake---what you going to do down here?" "I've got the mill accounts to go over." This quote is significant because the conversation shows that Ethan doesn't want to go to bed with Zeena. He would rather make up an excuse to stay downstairs with Mattie to continue their moment they were having before Zeena came down. This shows how much Ethan cares about Mattie and wants to be with her.. not Zeena.

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QUOTE: ' "We never got away how should you?" seemed to be written on every headstone ; and whenever he went out of his gate  he thought with a shiver: "I shall just go on living here till I join them." But now all desire for change had vanished, and the sight of the little enclosure gave him a warm sense of continuity and stability. '

EXPLANATION: Here, Ethan Frome  was outside looking at his parents' headstones and he felt like it they were speaking to him, taunting him and saying that he will never be able to leave Starkfield. Frome always wanted a change and wanted to leave Starkfield, however the situation he was born into prevented him from leaving- he has remained there all his life (realism/regionalism). His mind changed when he saw his parents headstones side by side, he began to think of Mattie and the possibility of them being in his parents' position and this thought gave him joy. He no longer wanted a change because change meant no Mattie. Frome equally personifies the gravestones saying they taunt him (speaking to him).

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"a dead cucumber vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death" This quote is significant because its showing that Ethan was thinking about the possibilities of Zeena d

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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" This is important because it shows that they are not only hiding their love from other people but they are also hiding it from each other.

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"No. I just felt so mean I couldn't sleep." (p.33) Zeena is beginning to truly show her disdain and anger for Ethan and Mattie being together and away from the house for so long. This shows the beginning of a conflict that will most likely last throughout the novel.

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"The other tried he tried to slip through hers; but she eluded him nimbly, and Frome''s heart, which had swung out over a black void, trembled back to safety." The significance of the quote shows how emotionally attached to Mattie he really is, and in seeing her avoid another mans arm brought him from becoming hurt to see her enjoying the other man to being pleased she avoided him.

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"They turned in at the gate and passed under the shaded knoll where, enclosed in a low fence, the Frome grave-stones slanted at crazy angles through the snow. Ethan looked at them curiously. For years that quiet company had mocked his restlessness, his desire for change and freedom. “We never got away—how should you?” seemed to be written on every headstone; and whenever he went in or out of his gate he thought with a shiver: “I shall just go on living here till I join them.” But now all desire for change had vanished, and the sight of the little enclosure gave him a warm sense of continuance and stability."

This quote shows the strong feelings Ethan has towards the control he has over his own life. At first, he feels restricted by his past. The graves are more than just graves to him; in his mind, they are personified figures that taunt him. Every time he enters or exits the gate, they remind him of the long years he spent caring for his dying parents. However, he is now accepting of his situation because of the time he gets to spend with Mattie.

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"Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp. the light, on a level with her chin, drew out the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its ring of crimping-pins. To Ethan, still in the rosy haze of his hour with Mattie, the sight came with the intense precision of the last dream before waking. He felt as if he had never before known what his wife looked like. This quote is significant, because it gives a different kind of description about his wife.

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"He could not pronounce the name without the name without a stiffening of the muscles of his throat" The thought of Mattie being with someone else physical pained him.

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" I told you i aint one to be afraid." - Mattie ..This is significant because during this time they didn't give women the same respect. They didn't think they could do the same as men and were thought to be less brave as them. This shows the social dynamic in the novel.

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"He felt as if he had never before known what his wife looked like" pg38
This quote is significant because this quote show that Ethan had never pay attention to how his wife actually look liker ever since she was sick.

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"He felt as if he had never before known what his wife looked like."
(CH 2, pg 22)

This is a significant quote because Ethan has become so accustom to Mattie's face that he didn't even recognize his own wife Zeena. This really shows Ethan's deep love and obsession for Mattie.

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“You’d ought to tell me, Ethan Frome—you’d ought to! Unless you want me to go too—

Unless he wanted her to go too! The cry was balm to his raw wound. "
This quote shows how Ethan cares for Mattie. Because he doesn't want her to leave and did not want her to think that either.

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"Ned Halle and Ruth Varnum came just as near running into the big elm at the bottom. We were all sure they were killed.""Wouldn't it have been too awful?" "They're so happy".

"Oh Ned aint that much as steering. I guess I can take you down all right!" (pg. 19)

Forshadows a future incident and shows how Frome is trying to impress her by saying he could get her down safely.

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"...pressed her against him so closely that he seemed to feel her with warmth in his veins." pg 31. This quote is showing that he is so close associated with Mattie, he isn't concerned with his wife. He's all in her personal space knowing he shouldn't be that close to where he can feel her "warmth".

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"Not for the world would he have made a sign to her, though it seemed to him that his life hung on her next gesture." (ch.2, pg.18) This quote is significant because it shows how much this woman changed his outlook on life and how every move she made could switch his mood in a second.