Zeenas hypochondriac nature was a huge weight on the soul of Ethan Frome.

Ethan also thought that being alone during the hard cold winter was unbearable, which made him turn towards the decision of asking Zeena to marry him.Īfter his mother had died he had also felt he owed Zeena for all her hard work, o he did the only thing he could afford and married her this would turn out to be one of the worst decisions Ethan would ever make. Ethan saw how well Zeena had taken care of his mother, which gave him the idea that because she took care of his mother so well that maybe she would care for him as well as she cared for his mother.

So his cousin, Zeena, came to take care of his ill mother. Now poor Ethan had double the work on his hands, taking care of the saw mill and his mother. When Ethan got back from college, to his distress, his mother was stricken with a deadly disease. Ethan had no choice but to leave college and stop his classes so that he could go home and take care of his poor mother.Įthan went home like any respectable young man would do those days, As Marline Springer writes Ethan Frome gives up scholarly ambitions to help an This move started a domino affect of bad choices and bad karma falling towards Ethan made decisions too quickly and gave them little or no thought Some of the decisions that Ethan made were not well planned and were blinded by quick thinking and natural human instinct. As a result of his fathers death, Ethans mother was left all alone and so was his fathers saw mill. When Ethan was attending his college classes his father had become deathly ill and soon after the illness had struck, he died. Ethan Fromes troubles began he made poor choices in his life. Three topics that display this discontent for life and the poor choices that Ethan made are that Ethans experiences personal misfortune that hurt his chance for happiness, Ethan made choices too quickly and gave them little or no thought, and Zeenas hypocondriact nature was a huge weight on the soul of Ethan Frome.Įthan experiences personal misfortunes that hurt his chances for happiness. Ethans poor choices have made him a miserable man with little to look forward to and only agony to look back on. In the novel, Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, Ethanes life, although difficult, was full of discontent because of his choices.

Ethan frome novel