Moral dilemma over passionate affairs sometimes begs the question: is it worth the while? Are the consequences of following illicit and morally questionable passions worth the powerful draw to pleasure? This dilemma is present in the affairs of Ethan Frome and Mattie Silver in Edith Wharton’s evocative novel Ethan Frome, and is met with a bitter answer. To Ethan, “[Mattie] was right: this [death] was better than parting.” The active romance of Ethan and Mattie proved to be nonviable considering their lack of wealth, and they had to make the decision to give in to their love, or fall prey to societal standards and live a life without each other. The failed suicide attempt proves Mattie’s statement incorrect; the impactful emotional and physical…show more content… 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. And the sweetness of Mattie's avowal, the wild wonder of knowing at last that all that had happened to him had happened to her too, made the other vision more abhorrent, the other life more intolerable to return to…” (Ethan Frome, Gutenberg.com), a passion that leads them to attempt suicide. This passion is not evident once the flashback is finished, Ethan and Mattie fall out of love. The second to last section of the book, where the narrator is given a glimpse at how the three are living after the incident, there is no passion, no emotion from Ethan directed toward Zeena nor Mattie; they become a part of his daily work routine rather than his closest relations. Falling out of love is part of the natural course for most romances, a fact that is understood to Wharton because Ethan fell out of love with Zeena as well. It typically occurs as a result of long distance, or because they don’t meet each other’s needs. A soldier returning from war to find out his wife is with another man is a popular cliché that speaks to this occurrence. No matter how fervently people love each other, not being near
