The Effects of Ethan Frome's Dishonor to Responsibilities.
Ethan Frome by, Edith Wharton is a story of an ill-fated love, set during the winter of a rural New England town called Starkfield. Ethan is a farmer who is married to a sickly woman named Zeena, whom he had previously taken the responsibility of caring for his sick mother with. They both live the lives of unspoken resentment, on Ethan's failing farm. Ethan has been caring for his hypochondriac wife for six years now. Due to Zeena's numerouscomplications? they employ her cousin to help around the house, the beautiful Mattie Silver. With Mattie's youthful presence in the house, Ethan realizes his now lost opportunities, and the disappointment of a life and marriage he now lives. Ethan and Mattie in turn, fall in love. However, they attempted to disregard Ethan's and Mattie's responsibilities to Zeena by killing themselves, leaving a helpless, broken, Zeena to fend for herself. In essence Ethan discovers that the only way to get rid of his responsibilities without living a guilt-ridden life, is to take his own, in an attempt to escape reality. What he does not realize is that these actions are not realistically the only option, go against any shred of morals he had, and were unbelievably cruel to Zeena, who would be left on her own with nothing but sickness, and a broken farm.
He marries Zeena after the death of his mother, to escape silence, isolation, and loneliness. Ethan also thinks that him marrying Zeena as a way to compensate her for giving up part of her life to nurse his sick mother. After marring Zeena he forgets any previous ambitions he had, and is now bound to someone he does not truly love. Several years after their marriage, cousin, Mattie Silver is asked to relieve Zeena (unable to continue due to her hypochondria) of her household duties. Ethan finds himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, "The pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie".
