Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

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We have all encountered those situations. The ones in which we are given two options. The first option is to give in; to follow our innermost desires the, the ones that plague our heart longing and a craving for it. The second option is to follow convention, the ideas that have been placed in our head since birth about what is right and what is wrong. These two options often leave us perplexed; we feel compelled to go in two polar directions. The choice is not between what lies at stake at that particular instant in time. The thing we are so viciously debating inside our heads are the possible consequences of our choice. If we decide on the first option and we acquiesce to our heart’s devotion, then we are destined to suffer judgment and …show more content…
In her most well known work, Edith Wharton composes a story of what it is like to be caught in that exact psychological trap. In the book, Ethan has fallen in love with a girl named Mattie. Mattie is living in the Frome household to take care of Ethan’s ill wife Zeena. Mattie presents Ethan with this time-worn dilemma of choosing love over responsibility. While Ethan knows that his primary duty as man is to care for his wife, he feels intoxicated and joyous by Mattie’s mere presence and is compelled to run off with her. With a rush of adrenaline and overflowing with romantic thoughts, Ethan and Mattie attempt to escape the oppressive conformation of society and commit suicide together so that they will never have to continue living apart from each other. Mattie first proposes this escape plan by convincing Ethan to lose control of the sled and, “go right into the big elm. You said you could. So’t we’d never have to leave each other anymore,” (Wharton 90). This shows Mattie’s desire to leave all of the duties she has on Earth. She views death as the ultimate peace and final escape from the torture of being apart from Ethan. When Ethan finally agrees to run the sled into the elm, he too has succumbed to this notion of freedom by death. In his mind, Ethan vehemently debates on whether or not he should go through with this fatal plan, but he decisively concludes, “she was right: this was better than parting,” …show more content…
After the failed suicide attempt, Ethan is left physically scarred and Mattie handicapped. Zeena is the only one left to care for them and instead of rightfully being furious that Ethan chose death over his responsibility to her, she uses what little strength she is able to muster and provides for both the lame Mattie and the disfigured Ethan. Previously in the novel, the narrator depicts Zeena as a cold and featureless woman. But at the conclusion it is shown that despite her apparent miserable existence, she still manages to care for Mattie, though not always with absolute graciousness. In the last chapter, Mrs. Hale describes Zeena’s kindness saying, “when she heard o’ the accident she came right in and stayed with Ethan…and when Mattie could be moved, Zeena sent for her and took her back,” (Wharton 98). While Zeena has almost every right to be furious, petty, and unforgiving, she abandons all of these emotions and chooses to become the caretaker for Ethan and
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