Poor Man, Poor Women

In Edith Wharton’s novella, Ethan Frome and his family, are poor in spirit and physically, the setting, symbolism, and tone provide a before and after glance at their multi-dimensional poverty. There is an unpleasant shift in temperament from an austere civility shared by Ethan and Zeena, to a bitter triangle of hatred, also involving Miss Mattie Silver. Ethan, Zeena and Mattie struggle with their emotions and their continual, omnipresent unhappiness that has pervaded their lives, and will continue until they day one of their misfortunate number dies.

The setting for Ethan Frome is winter in the aptly named Starkfield, Massachusetts. The name Starkfield conjures an image of a desolate land filled with desolate people. Starkfield is a small community where even the locals believe that Ethan “[has] been in Starkfield too many winters” (Wharton 2). The countryside is bleak and unpromising in the bitter cold winter days and nights. “The landscape is buried under snow,...