Ethan From

ETHAN FROME

In this novel by Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome is the protagonist. He is a person that is struck down by the circumstances that surround him. Ethan was born on the farm where many of his ancestors had come from. His ancestors lived there and failed to escape and prosper into a different city. They died there and were buried in the cemetery between the town and his house. The income from the farm and his sawmill could barely support him and his wife. He and his wife lived in a small, run-down house in Starkfield, Massachusetts.

Ethan has many different qualities that could describe him. He could be described as quiet but he is also very sociable around certain people. He has a love of nature and a very strong desire to go and live in the city. He is a man of strong moral sense, a dreamer, courageous, and a crippled and miserable man. He starts out at the beginning of the novel being a shy, quiet man who looks very lonely and weather beaten.

He has a love of nature but wants so badly to move to the city and start his life there. He is a dreamer, he has a dream that he wants to go to the city and be successful. He has another dream that he wants to run off with Mattie. He is a man of strong moral sense and intelligence. He wants to run away with Mattie but thinks it through and feels that he would be doing something to ruin his wives life and even his own.

Ethan feels obligated in two different ways in this story. The first time he feels obligated is to come home and take over the farm. His sick mother couldn't do it so he had to come back and run the farm and sawmill. The second time he feels obligated is to marry Zeena. He thinks he owes her something because she helped him with his sick mother. There is part of him that wants to marry her because he thinks that they share the same dream of moving to the city and starting a life.

His courageousness cripples him in the