Major conflict

Analysis: Another major conflict in the book is Ethans fight with his own conscience. This conflict is revealed as he decides whether or not to reveal to Mattie his true feelings. The struggles around him such as Zeena, the Starkfield landscape, and his home affect his conflict by adding to the problem of having something going on with Mattie.

Major conflict

Analysis: In the book, the biggest conflict is that Ethan really loves Mattie and they have a thing for each other all while he is married to Zeena. This is a big conflict because he is much happier with Mattie but he does not want to ruin his marriage with Zeena. "It pleased Ethan to have surprised a pair of lovers on the spot where he and Mattie had stood with such a thirst for each other in their hearts; but he felt a pang at the thought that these two need not hide their happiness" (Frome 26). This quote shows that Ethan was aware he was living a lie.

theme: isolation

Theme: Isolation

Analysis: Another major theme in the book is isolation. Ethan tries to escape this isolation of Starkfield and his father's farm by going to technological college at Worcester. He began to overcome his social traits at college but the death of his father forced him to quite college and go back to tend to the farm and his ill mother.

major theme: silence

Theme: silence

Analysis: In the book, the author uses silence as a major theme in the book. The author describes one of the characters in the introduction as "granite outcroppings.... half emerged from the soil, and scarecely more articulate (Frome 11)." Each character in the book has his/her own case of silence in the book. Ethan, being his father passed away, runs the family farm and has little time for talk with the villages while his sick mother stops him from speaking, he is forced in a "mortal silence". Once Zeena came and began helped with his mother, she became silent as well once his mother died and she married Ethan.

Zeena

                                                                     Zeena Frome:
                                                        
Zeena is not as a rounded character as her husband Ethan but the negative aspects of her personality emerge very clearly. Zeena speaks in a very complaining type of way but her illness explains a good bit of this behavior. Zeena's only talent is caring for the sick. "Zeena's done for [Mattie], and done for Ethan, as good as she could. It was a miracle, considering how sick she was – but she seemed to be raised right up just when the call came to her. Not as she's ever given up doctoring, and she's had sick spells right along; but she's had the strength given her to care for those two for over twenty years, and before the accident came she thought she couldn't even care for herself" (Frome 23).

Mattie Silver:

 

 

Mattie is Zeena Frome's cousin and her personality contradicts the one of Zeena. Mattie is not one to complain and she is healthy, happy, and pretty. She admires Ethans observations and thought, and shares his appreciation for nature. “Ethan, where’ll I go if I leave you? I don’t know how to get along alone. You said so yourself just now. Nobody but you was ever good to me. And they’ll be that strange girl in the house…and she’ll sleep in my bed, where I used to lay nights and listen to hear you come up the stairs…(Frome 91)”


 

 

Ethan Frome:

 

 Eathan Frome is a very mischeiveous man and has a shy side to him. During the story we see that Eathan uses his charm to get the woman he wants, but he has a problem staying faithful to his wife Zeena because of her cousin Mattie. Ethan is a sensative man and he loves nature, but he lacks emotional and is mastered by circumstances. "There was something bleak and unapproachale in his face, and he was so stiffened and grizzled that i took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was more than fifty-two" (page 11).