The Tragedy of Ethan Frome

Ethan Frome is the tragedy of a married couple, the husband's mistress, and how their disposition and traits prevent them from finding happiness. In Wharton's Ethan Frome, Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie become victims of their own personality traits, which are: emotional weakness, self-absorption, lack of communication and affection, and immaturity . The characters are discontent with their lives but are helpless and ignorant; they do not realize that their own dispositions bring about problems and hurt them and others.

Ethan is a vulnerable and tormented individual. He suffers a lot of emotionally, his father's death and his mother's sickness. And as if that weren't enough, Zeena, his wife, is a hypochondriac. Zeena faithfully cared for Ethan's mother till her deathbed, and Ethan was grateful for this. He married Zeena because she was his mother's caretaker until she died. Primarily, he married Zeena because he cared too much about what others thought about him, and he would be looked down upon and be seen as ungrateful if he didn't marry her. After enduring the death of both his parents, he is left alone and desperate for some comfort and love in his life. He felt forced to marry to Zeena; due to his grief, he wanted someone in his life, and felt that Zeena would be the solution to his problems. Ethan is influenced by loneliness, and the thought of not having anyone to brighten his life causes him to act on impulse, and marry Zeena. Once they are married, Zeena proves to be a terrible companion; Ethan is miserable and lonely, and he lusts for Mattie, the housemaid. Loneliness persuades Ethan to marry the wrong person, and to lust for someone that he cannot be with in his situation.