Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome lost control of his life when his
mother died. After his mother’s
funeral, Ethan did not want to be left alone
on the farm, so he asked Zeena to
stay with him. At first, Ethan enjoys her
company. However, Zeena soon becomes a
nuisance to Ethan, and prevents him
from becoming an engineer in a large city.
After being married a year,
Zeena becomes sick herself, and the only time she
talks to Ethan is to
complain or show her discontent. After Mattie comes to the
farm, Ethan does
not love Zeena at all. He thinks the only pleasure she has left
is to inflict
pain on him. Since Zeena is a burden on Ethan, he naturally wants
to improve
his life. The reason he does not have control of his life is because
he is
married to Zeena, and he is not brave enough to go away with Mattie.
The
reason he is married to Zeena is because his mother died. Since Zeena is
why
Ethan does not have control of his life, and Ethan married her
because his
mother died, the point in time when Ethan lost control of his
life is when his
mother died. I believe Ethan could have changed the
direction of his life if he
had gone away from the farm to marry Mattie. The
reason he did not have control
of his life was because he was married to
Zeena. If he would have married Mattie
and left Zeena, he would not have been
in the sled accident, and consequently,
he would have lived a much happier
life with Mattie. The second way Ethan could
have changed the direction of
his life is if he would have sold the farm and
never have married Zeena. This
would have saved him many years of problems and
unhappiness. He would never
have met Mattie, which means he would never have
injured himself in the sled
accident. If he would have lived in another town
besides Starkfield, he might
have been an engineer and married a woman who would
treat him better than
Zeena ever did.