At multiple points throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the motif of living death to emphasize the gloomy atmosphere of Starkfield and foreshadow the novel's tragic conclusion.
The motif is first introduced during the Prologue, when the Narrator describes Ethan as a "ruin of a man" who "looks as if he was dead and in hell," implying that although Ethan is physically alive, he is metaphorically dead. The motif recurs later in the Prologue, when the Narrator sees the Frome farmhouse and notices the "black wraith of a deciduous creeper" hanging above the porch. The deciduous vine, which sheds its leaves in the winter, represents the barrenness of the Frome farm and is an ideal symbol for living death—although still alive, the plant appears dead, a concept reinforced by the phrase "black wraith.
The juxtaposition of life and death continues in Chapter 2 when Ethan and Mattie pass by the Frome family graveyard on their way back to the farmhouse, and Ethan is reminded of his mortality:
[W]henever he went in or out of his gate he thought with a shiver: "I shall just go on living here till I join them."
Ethan must pass by the graveyard every time he enters or leaves his house, which means that day of his life carries with it a reminder of his eventual death. This preoccupation with death is amplified by the recurring image of the vine:
A dead cucumber-vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death, and the thought flashed through Ethan's brain: "If it were there for Zeena—"
In this passage, a once-living piece of organic material (the vine) is compared to a man-made symbol of death, and astute readers will deduce that this is the same vine that the Narrator sees more than 20 years later, implying that farmhouse has remained unchanged during that time and reminding them that Ethan's story is destined to end in tragedy.
As the novel continues, Wharton continues to use simile and metaphor and expand the motif of living death. Later in Chapter 2, she likens the interior of Frome farmhouse to tomb by describing the kitchen as having "the deadly chill of a vault." In Chapter 6, the broken pickle-dish is compared to a "dead body," foreshadowing how Ethan and Mattie's bodies will become broken after the accident, dooming them to a state of living death. And in Chapter 9, the darkness and silence of the spruces make it so that Ethan and Mattie seem to be "in their coffins underground." Even though the characters are alive, their surroundings make it seem as though they are already dead and buried, foreshadowing how their fate will be shaped by external circumstances.
In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explicitly states that Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena appear to exist in a state of living death:
"[T]he way they are now, I don't see's there's much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard"
Wharton seems to imply that the only thing that separated Ethan from his dead relatives was his ability to actively change his own fate. Since he never exercised this ability, which is only reserved for the living, he has doomed himself to a facsimile of death.
Ethan Frome is a novel defined by its setting, with Wharton devoting numerous passages to descriptions of the physical landscape. She also frequently uses a combination of imagery, metaphor, and simile to draw comparisons between characters and their environment. The motif of animals and nature emphasizes the profound impact that environmental factors can have on human emotion and behavior.
In Chapter 1, Wharton sets up Ethan as a person who "more sensitive than the people about him" to the beauty of the natural world. He is also appreciative of Mattie's beauty, and Wharton links these two concepts together by using figurative language to compare Mattie to different aspects of nature. At different points throughout the novel, parts of Mattie's body are likened to a sunset, a field of wheat, and a cloud of mist.
Wharton also frequently compares Mattie to a bird—a delicate creature associated with song, morning, and springtime. Her mind is likened to "the flit of a bird in the branches," and the movement of her hands resembles the flight of birds over a nest. At one point, Ethan is reminded of her laughter when he hears a bird singing. This focus on sound and movement reflects how Mattie, unlike Zeena, is vibrant and physically dynamic. Songbirds are also often used to symbolize devotion, monogamy, and domesticity because they nest in pairs and were historically believed to mate for life. This symbolism is fitting because although Ethan definitely feels romantic and sexual desire for Mattie, what he truly wants is for them to live together as man and wife in idealized domestic bliss.
In Chapter 9, Wharton uses tactile and olfactory imagery to deepen the connection between Mattie and the beauty of the natural world and associate her with warmth and light:
She clung to him without answering, and he laid his lips on her hair, which was soft yet springy, like certain mosses on warm slopes, and had the faint woody fragrance of fresh sawdust in the sun.
Later on in the same chapter, following the fatal accident, this motif continues, with Ethan mistaking Mattie for a small injured animal:
The stillness was so profound that he heard a little animal twittering somewhere near by under the snow. It made a small frightened cheep like a field mouse, and he wondered languidly if it were hurt.
Earlier in the novel, when Mattie was likened to a bird, these comparisons had a positive connotation. Here, however, Wharton's use of auditory imagery in the phrase "frightened cheep" emphasizes Mattie's helplessness in the face of external circumstances. After the accident, she loses the characteristics—beauty and movement—that connected her to the natural world.
More than 20 years after the accident, Ethan still has a deep connection to the environment, but the nature of this connection has changed. In the Prologue, the Narrator makes note of this connection:
He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface.
Ethan has become like a Starkfield winter—harsh and cold on the outside, with any remaining warmth locked deep within himself.
The motif of stars occurs frequently throughout Ethan Frome, and Wharton uses it to represent a number of different themes.
At the beginning of the novel, stars represent the beauty of nature and the ability of humans to understand nature through science. Ethan's knowledge of constellations, which he uses to impress Mattie in Chapter 1, reflects his scientific training and his appreciation of the natural world:
"That's Orion down yonder; the big fellow to the right is Aldebaran, and the bunch of little ones—like bees swarming—they're the Pleiades..."
Ethan is attracted to Mattie in part because she shares his love of nature and appreciates his knowledge. As a result, their romance becomes tied to nature and particularly to the image of stars.
But stars have also long been used to symbolize destiny. In Western and Chinese astrology, the positions of the stars in the sky are believed to influence human behavior and can be used to divine the future. Many famous works of literature reference the supposed power of the stars over human destiny, and stars also represent fate in Chapter 9 of Ethan Frome. On the night that Ethan and Mattie go sledding, Wharton describes the sky as "starless," implying that they are unburdened by heavenly influence and free to choose their own fate. After the accident, however, it is revealed that the night is not truly starless after all:
The sky was still thick, but looking straight up he saw a single star, and tried vaguely to reckon whether it were Sirius[.]
Ethan's attempt to choose his own fate ends in disaster. He falters at the last second, unable to break free from the moral and environmental factors that have shaped so much of his life.
Wharton's use of stars as a symbol of fate reflects the influence of the Naturalist movement, which emphasized themes like determinism and the indifference of nature. Although people in Ethan Frome ascribe different meanings to the stars, they are ultimately unthinking objects and therefore uninterested in human affairs.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Mattie is consistently associated with the motif of fire, light, and heat.
The reader is first introduced to Mattie in Chapter 1, when Ethan glimpses her through the window of the church:
The metal reflectors of the gas-jets sent crude waves of light against the whitewashed walls, and the iron flanks of the stove at the end of the hall looked as though they were heaving with volcanic fires.
The warm, well-lit interior of the church and the energy of the dancers within it contrast with the cold night outside, where Ethan waits alone. Fire, which is often used to symbolize desire, represents Ethan's longing for Mattie, while the simile comparing the stoves to "volcanic fires" foreshadows the ultimately destructive nature of this desire.
Later in the same chapter, Ethan uses a simile to explicitly compares Mattie to fire:
But it was not only that the coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton portrays Starkfield winters as harsh, isolating, and capable of inducing insanity in the town's inhabitants. In this environment, fire represents life and comfort, physically protecting people from the cold but also helping them to resist the maddening effects of isolation. Mattie provides Ethan with similar comfort—she is the one source of hope and happiness in his otherwise dismal life.
Although fire usually signifies sexual desire, in Chapter 4, Wharton also uses it as a symbol of domestic bliss:
A bright fire glowed in the stove and the cat lay stretched before it, watching the table with a drowsy eye.
In this passage, the fire in the stove serves as an integral part of the image of domestic contentment between Ethan and Mattie.
By the end of the novel, Ethan and Mattie's desire for one another has led to the destruction of both their lives. In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that their plight is particularly arduous during the winter, when they must constantly keep the fire going to stave off the cold:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier... but winters there's the fires to be thought of; and there ain't a dime to spare up at the Fromes.'”
By this point, fire has lost its positive connotations and is portrayed as an inconvenient necessity that only serves to make life at the Frome house more difficult. This shift reflects the influence of the Naturalist movement on Ethan Frome. Like other Naturalist writers, Wharton rejects the notion that human beings have a spiritual connection to nature, which was an integral part of the earlier Romantic movement. Fire, the novel argues, is a natural force, so it is fundamentally neutral and uncaring, despite the meanings that people ascribe to it.
In Ethan Frome, the motif of spring and summer represents the warmth and happiness that Ethan derives from his relationship with Mattie. At multiple points throughout the novel, Wharton uses similes to associate Mattie with various aspects of these seasons. Since the novel takes place during winter, which is known to cause isolation and even insanity for the inhabitants of Starkfield, these similes illustrate how Mattie is a source of warmth and companionship for Ethan.
In Chapter 2, the image of springtime is used to demonstrate how comfortable and confident Ethan feels in Mattie's presence:
Her wonder and his laughter ran together like spring rills in a thaw.
In this passage, the interaction between Ethan and Mattie is likened to streams produced by the melting of winter snow in spring. This simile reflects how Ethan, who has long felt unappreciated by his wife, Zeena, is also beginning to "thaw" as a result of Mattie's influence. After a long "winter" of isolation and unhappiness, he is becoming more light-hearted.
Later on in the same chapter, the image of the stream recurs, this time paired with the image of summertime:
They walked on as if they were floating on a summer stream.
In both passages, the image of the flowing stream evokes a sense of change and movement, which contrasts sharply with the mundane inertia that characterizes life in Starkfield in the winter. In this passage, the word "floating" also reflects the dreamlike and insubstantial quality of Ethan's thoughts: as he walks with Mattie, he idly imagines a life with her but takes no direct action to make his dreams a reality. This lack of action hints at a more sinister aspect of spring and summer—the warmth and easiness of these seasons can lull someone into a false sense of security, making them forget about the harsh reality of winter.
In Chapter 5, Wharton once again associates Mattie with summertime:
[H]er face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat field under a summer breeze.
This simile reinforces Mattie's lively nature. Unlike Zeena, who is stagnant and unyielding, Mattie moves and changes like stalks of wheat bending in the wind. By comparing Mattie to a field of wheat, a staple crop, Wharton also associates her with life and abundance. The simile is complicated by the fact that Ethan, as a farmer, is responsible for planting and harvesting crops. This comparison therefore implies that Ethan, whose actual farm is barren and unproductive, views Mattie as something he can successfully cultivate and harvest, rather than seeing her as an equal partner.
Even after Ethan and Mattie's love story ends in tragedy, spring and summer still carry a hopeful connotation. In the novel's Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that the changing of the seasons represents a small source of reprieve for the Fromes:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier..."
Sadly, Mattie has lost both her sweet nature and her ability to move, which were the characteristics that connected her to spring and summer. Now, these seasons represent only a meager respite from the oppressive nature of life at the Frome farm.
At multiple points throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the motif of living death to emphasize the gloomy atmosphere of Starkfield and foreshadow the novel's tragic conclusion.
The motif is first introduced during the Prologue, when the Narrator describes Ethan as a "ruin of a man" who "looks as if he was dead and in hell," implying that although Ethan is physically alive, he is metaphorically dead. The motif recurs later in the Prologue, when the Narrator sees the Frome farmhouse and notices the "black wraith of a deciduous creeper" hanging above the porch. The deciduous vine, which sheds its leaves in the winter, represents the barrenness of the Frome farm and is an ideal symbol for living death—although still alive, the plant appears dead, a concept reinforced by the phrase "black wraith.
The juxtaposition of life and death continues in Chapter 2 when Ethan and Mattie pass by the Frome family graveyard on their way back to the farmhouse, and Ethan is reminded of his mortality:
[W]henever he went in or out of his gate he thought with a shiver: "I shall just go on living here till I join them."
Ethan must pass by the graveyard every time he enters or leaves his house, which means that day of his life carries with it a reminder of his eventual death. This preoccupation with death is amplified by the recurring image of the vine:
A dead cucumber-vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death, and the thought flashed through Ethan's brain: "If it were there for Zeena—"
In this passage, a once-living piece of organic material (the vine) is compared to a man-made symbol of death, and astute readers will deduce that this is the same vine that the Narrator sees more than 20 years later, implying that farmhouse has remained unchanged during that time and reminding them that Ethan's story is destined to end in tragedy.
As the novel continues, Wharton continues to use simile and metaphor and expand the motif of living death. Later in Chapter 2, she likens the interior of Frome farmhouse to tomb by describing the kitchen as having "the deadly chill of a vault." In Chapter 6, the broken pickle-dish is compared to a "dead body," foreshadowing how Ethan and Mattie's bodies will become broken after the accident, dooming them to a state of living death. And in Chapter 9, the darkness and silence of the spruces make it so that Ethan and Mattie seem to be "in their coffins underground." Even though the characters are alive, their surroundings make it seem as though they are already dead and buried, foreshadowing how their fate will be shaped by external circumstances.
In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explicitly states that Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena appear to exist in a state of living death:
"[T]he way they are now, I don't see's there's much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard"
Wharton seems to imply that the only thing that separated Ethan from his dead relatives was his ability to actively change his own fate. Since he never exercised this ability, which is only reserved for the living, he has doomed himself to a facsimile of death.
Throughout Ethan Frome, sound is a motif that emphasizes the loneliness of the novel’s setting and the emotional anguish of its characters.
At several points throughout the novel, Wharton associates the lack of sound with isolation and insanity. After Ethan’s father dies, his mother’s health rapidly declines, and one symptom of her illness is pathological silence. The novel proposes several potential explanations for this silence, including grief, the diminished traffic on the road to the Frome farmhouse as a result of the new railroad, and the maddening effect of “too many winters” spent in Starkfield.
In Chapter 4, Ethan recalls that the silence was finally broken when Zeena arrived at the farmhouse to help nurse his mother:
[H]uman speech was again heard in the house. After the mortal silence of his long imprisonment Zeena’s volubility was like music to his ears.
The simile comparing Zeena’s voice to music emphasizes the emotionally nourishing quality of human speech. The lack of sound, by contrast, can provoke restless behavior: Ethan does not love Zeena, but he asks her to marry him because he fears that if he is left alone without anyone to speak to, he will go insane. As the years go by, however, Zeena also grows increasingly sickly and quiet. When Mattie arrives in Starkfield many years later, Ethan is attracted not only to her physical beauty but also to the sound of her voice and laughter, which breathe life into his stagnant existence.
Later in Chapter 4, Wharton suggests that the mere presence of human voices is not enough to stave off melancholy, because true companionship means having someone to listen as well as speak. Zeena’s growing taciturnity, for instance, seems to be a result of Ethan’s lack of interest in her:
Then she too fell silent. Perhaps it was the inevitable effect of life on the farm, or perhaps, as she sometimes said, it was because Ethan "never listened." The charge was not wholly unfounded.
As a married woman in turn-of-the-century New England, Zeena was expected to remain within the domestic sphere, which, in a rural community like Starkfield, resulted in almost total confinement. Her isolation and lack of mobility are exacerbated by the fact that her husband, her only companion, fails to actively listen to what she has to say. Ethan suspects and Wharton strongly implies that her silence is an act of revenge—Zeena cannot exercise much power over Ethan, but she can deny him the companionship that has been denied to her.
By the end of the novel, Ethan has two companions at the farmhouse, but their voices only serve to aggravate him and remind him of his failure to escape his oppressive life in Starkfield. As a result, when the Narrator first encounters Ethan 20 years after his fateful accident, he too has grown silent.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Mattie is consistently associated with the motif of fire, light, and heat.
The reader is first introduced to Mattie in Chapter 1, when Ethan glimpses her through the window of the church:
The metal reflectors of the gas-jets sent crude waves of light against the whitewashed walls, and the iron flanks of the stove at the end of the hall looked as though they were heaving with volcanic fires.
The warm, well-lit interior of the church and the energy of the dancers within it contrast with the cold night outside, where Ethan waits alone. Fire, which is often used to symbolize desire, represents Ethan's longing for Mattie, while the simile comparing the stoves to "volcanic fires" foreshadows the ultimately destructive nature of this desire.
Later in the same chapter, Ethan uses a simile to explicitly compares Mattie to fire:
But it was not only that the coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton portrays Starkfield winters as harsh, isolating, and capable of inducing insanity in the town's inhabitants. In this environment, fire represents life and comfort, physically protecting people from the cold but also helping them to resist the maddening effects of isolation. Mattie provides Ethan with similar comfort—she is the one source of hope and happiness in his otherwise dismal life.
Although fire usually signifies sexual desire, in Chapter 4, Wharton also uses it as a symbol of domestic bliss:
A bright fire glowed in the stove and the cat lay stretched before it, watching the table with a drowsy eye.
In this passage, the fire in the stove serves as an integral part of the image of domestic contentment between Ethan and Mattie.
By the end of the novel, Ethan and Mattie's desire for one another has led to the destruction of both their lives. In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that their plight is particularly arduous during the winter, when they must constantly keep the fire going to stave off the cold:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier... but winters there's the fires to be thought of; and there ain't a dime to spare up at the Fromes.'”
By this point, fire has lost its positive connotations and is portrayed as an inconvenient necessity that only serves to make life at the Frome house more difficult. This shift reflects the influence of the Naturalist movement on Ethan Frome. Like other Naturalist writers, Wharton rejects the notion that human beings have a spiritual connection to nature, which was an integral part of the earlier Romantic movement. Fire, the novel argues, is a natural force, so it is fundamentally neutral and uncaring, despite the meanings that people ascribe to it.
In Ethan Frome, the motif of spring and summer represents the warmth and happiness that Ethan derives from his relationship with Mattie. At multiple points throughout the novel, Wharton uses similes to associate Mattie with various aspects of these seasons. Since the novel takes place during winter, which is known to cause isolation and even insanity for the inhabitants of Starkfield, these similes illustrate how Mattie is a source of warmth and companionship for Ethan.
In Chapter 2, the image of springtime is used to demonstrate how comfortable and confident Ethan feels in Mattie's presence:
Her wonder and his laughter ran together like spring rills in a thaw.
In this passage, the interaction between Ethan and Mattie is likened to streams produced by the melting of winter snow in spring. This simile reflects how Ethan, who has long felt unappreciated by his wife, Zeena, is also beginning to "thaw" as a result of Mattie's influence. After a long "winter" of isolation and unhappiness, he is becoming more light-hearted.
Later on in the same chapter, the image of the stream recurs, this time paired with the image of summertime:
They walked on as if they were floating on a summer stream.
In both passages, the image of the flowing stream evokes a sense of change and movement, which contrasts sharply with the mundane inertia that characterizes life in Starkfield in the winter. In this passage, the word "floating" also reflects the dreamlike and insubstantial quality of Ethan's thoughts: as he walks with Mattie, he idly imagines a life with her but takes no direct action to make his dreams a reality. This lack of action hints at a more sinister aspect of spring and summer—the warmth and easiness of these seasons can lull someone into a false sense of security, making them forget about the harsh reality of winter.
In Chapter 5, Wharton once again associates Mattie with summertime:
[H]er face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat field under a summer breeze.
This simile reinforces Mattie's lively nature. Unlike Zeena, who is stagnant and unyielding, Mattie moves and changes like stalks of wheat bending in the wind. By comparing Mattie to a field of wheat, a staple crop, Wharton also associates her with life and abundance. The simile is complicated by the fact that Ethan, as a farmer, is responsible for planting and harvesting crops. This comparison therefore implies that Ethan, whose actual farm is barren and unproductive, views Mattie as something he can successfully cultivate and harvest, rather than seeing her as an equal partner.
Even after Ethan and Mattie's love story ends in tragedy, spring and summer still carry a hopeful connotation. In the novel's Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that the changing of the seasons represents a small source of reprieve for the Fromes:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier..."
Sadly, Mattie has lost both her sweet nature and her ability to move, which were the characteristics that connected her to spring and summer. Now, these seasons represent only a meager respite from the oppressive nature of life at the Frome farm.
In Ethan Frome, images of crime, imprisonment, and bondage serve as a motif that reflects the apparent lack of control that Ethan has over his own life.
In Chapter 6, when Zeena unexpectedly returns home early from her visit to the doctor, Wharton uses a simile to compare Ethan and Mattie to criminals:
They stood and stared at each other, pale as culprits.
The word "culprit" carries the connotation of crime and guilt. Although Ethan and Mattie haven't committed a crime in the legal sense, their adulterous desire is socially taboo. As a result, their being interrupted in the middle of their transgression feels similar to two thieves being caught red-handed in the middle of a heist.
This motif recurs in Chapter 8, when Ethan realizes his plan to run away with Mattie is unfeasible:
The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.
The similes in this passage emphasize the theme of determinism and inescapable fate that runs through much of the novel. Ethan views himself as a "prisoner" of his circumstances, which he envisions as a pair of handcuffs being shackled around his wrists. This passage also implies that Ethan feels a sense of guilt regarding his desire for Mattie. He sees himself as a "convict"—someone who has already been convicted of a crime—rather than an innocent prisoner.
The motif of bondage and imprisonment resurfaces in Chapter 9, when the time comes for Mattie to leave Starkfield:
It seemed to Ethan that his heart was bound with cords which an unseen hand was tightening with every tick of the clock.
In this passage, fate is personified as an "unseen hand." Ethan once again fails to take an active role in his own life, instead viewing himself as a passive victim of fate. Wharton frequently implies, however, that Ethan does in fact have the power to change his circumstances but chooses not to. His tragic destiny is not just the result of external factors, but also the consequence of his failure to take an active role in his own life.
In Ethan Frome, images of crime, imprisonment, and bondage serve as a motif that reflects the apparent lack of control that Ethan has over his own life.
In Chapter 6, when Zeena unexpectedly returns home early from her visit to the doctor, Wharton uses a simile to compare Ethan and Mattie to criminals:
They stood and stared at each other, pale as culprits.
The word "culprit" carries the connotation of crime and guilt. Although Ethan and Mattie haven't committed a crime in the legal sense, their adulterous desire is socially taboo. As a result, their being interrupted in the middle of their transgression feels similar to two thieves being caught red-handed in the middle of a heist.
This motif recurs in Chapter 8, when Ethan realizes his plan to run away with Mattie is unfeasible:
The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.
The similes in this passage emphasize the theme of determinism and inescapable fate that runs through much of the novel. Ethan views himself as a "prisoner" of his circumstances, which he envisions as a pair of handcuffs being shackled around his wrists. This passage also implies that Ethan feels a sense of guilt regarding his desire for Mattie. He sees himself as a "convict"—someone who has already been convicted of a crime—rather than an innocent prisoner.
The motif of bondage and imprisonment resurfaces in Chapter 9, when the time comes for Mattie to leave Starkfield:
It seemed to Ethan that his heart was bound with cords which an unseen hand was tightening with every tick of the clock.
In this passage, fate is personified as an "unseen hand." Ethan once again fails to take an active role in his own life, instead viewing himself as a passive victim of fate. Wharton frequently implies, however, that Ethan does in fact have the power to change his circumstances but chooses not to. His tragic destiny is not just the result of external factors, but also the consequence of his failure to take an active role in his own life.
Ethan Frome is a novel defined by its setting, with Wharton devoting numerous passages to descriptions of the physical landscape. She also frequently uses a combination of imagery, metaphor, and simile to draw comparisons between characters and their environment. The motif of animals and nature emphasizes the profound impact that environmental factors can have on human emotion and behavior.
In Chapter 1, Wharton sets up Ethan as a person who "more sensitive than the people about him" to the beauty of the natural world. He is also appreciative of Mattie's beauty, and Wharton links these two concepts together by using figurative language to compare Mattie to different aspects of nature. At different points throughout the novel, parts of Mattie's body are likened to a sunset, a field of wheat, and a cloud of mist.
Wharton also frequently compares Mattie to a bird—a delicate creature associated with song, morning, and springtime. Her mind is likened to "the flit of a bird in the branches," and the movement of her hands resembles the flight of birds over a nest. At one point, Ethan is reminded of her laughter when he hears a bird singing. This focus on sound and movement reflects how Mattie, unlike Zeena, is vibrant and physically dynamic. Songbirds are also often used to symbolize devotion, monogamy, and domesticity because they nest in pairs and were historically believed to mate for life. This symbolism is fitting because although Ethan definitely feels romantic and sexual desire for Mattie, what he truly wants is for them to live together as man and wife in idealized domestic bliss.
In Chapter 9, Wharton uses tactile and olfactory imagery to deepen the connection between Mattie and the beauty of the natural world and associate her with warmth and light:
She clung to him without answering, and he laid his lips on her hair, which was soft yet springy, like certain mosses on warm slopes, and had the faint woody fragrance of fresh sawdust in the sun.
Later on in the same chapter, following the fatal accident, this motif continues, with Ethan mistaking Mattie for a small injured animal:
The stillness was so profound that he heard a little animal twittering somewhere near by under the snow. It made a small frightened cheep like a field mouse, and he wondered languidly if it were hurt.
Earlier in the novel, when Mattie was likened to a bird, these comparisons had a positive connotation. Here, however, Wharton's use of auditory imagery in the phrase "frightened cheep" emphasizes Mattie's helplessness in the face of external circumstances. After the accident, she loses the characteristics—beauty and movement—that connected her to the natural world.
More than 20 years after the accident, Ethan still has a deep connection to the environment, but the nature of this connection has changed. In the Prologue, the Narrator makes note of this connection:
He seemed a part of the mute melancholy landscape, an incarnation of its frozen woe, with all that was warm and sentient in him fast bound below the surface.
Ethan has become like a Starkfield winter—harsh and cold on the outside, with any remaining warmth locked deep within himself.
In Ethan Frome, images of crime, imprisonment, and bondage serve as a motif that reflects the apparent lack of control that Ethan has over his own life.
In Chapter 6, when Zeena unexpectedly returns home early from her visit to the doctor, Wharton uses a simile to compare Ethan and Mattie to criminals:
They stood and stared at each other, pale as culprits.
The word "culprit" carries the connotation of crime and guilt. Although Ethan and Mattie haven't committed a crime in the legal sense, their adulterous desire is socially taboo. As a result, their being interrupted in the middle of their transgression feels similar to two thieves being caught red-handed in the middle of a heist.
This motif recurs in Chapter 8, when Ethan realizes his plan to run away with Mattie is unfeasible:
The inexorable facts closed in on him like prison-warders handcuffing a convict. There was no way out—none. He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of light was to be extinguished.
The similes in this passage emphasize the theme of determinism and inescapable fate that runs through much of the novel. Ethan views himself as a "prisoner" of his circumstances, which he envisions as a pair of handcuffs being shackled around his wrists. This passage also implies that Ethan feels a sense of guilt regarding his desire for Mattie. He sees himself as a "convict"—someone who has already been convicted of a crime—rather than an innocent prisoner.
The motif of bondage and imprisonment resurfaces in Chapter 9, when the time comes for Mattie to leave Starkfield:
It seemed to Ethan that his heart was bound with cords which an unseen hand was tightening with every tick of the clock.
In this passage, fate is personified as an "unseen hand." Ethan once again fails to take an active role in his own life, instead viewing himself as a passive victim of fate. Wharton frequently implies, however, that Ethan does in fact have the power to change his circumstances but chooses not to. His tragic destiny is not just the result of external factors, but also the consequence of his failure to take an active role in his own life.
The motif of stars occurs frequently throughout Ethan Frome, and Wharton uses it to represent a number of different themes.
At the beginning of the novel, stars represent the beauty of nature and the ability of humans to understand nature through science. Ethan's knowledge of constellations, which he uses to impress Mattie in Chapter 1, reflects his scientific training and his appreciation of the natural world:
"That's Orion down yonder; the big fellow to the right is Aldebaran, and the bunch of little ones—like bees swarming—they're the Pleiades..."
Ethan is attracted to Mattie in part because she shares his love of nature and appreciates his knowledge. As a result, their romance becomes tied to nature and particularly to the image of stars.
But stars have also long been used to symbolize destiny. In Western and Chinese astrology, the positions of the stars in the sky are believed to influence human behavior and can be used to divine the future. Many famous works of literature reference the supposed power of the stars over human destiny, and stars also represent fate in Chapter 9 of Ethan Frome. On the night that Ethan and Mattie go sledding, Wharton describes the sky as "starless," implying that they are unburdened by heavenly influence and free to choose their own fate. After the accident, however, it is revealed that the night is not truly starless after all:
The sky was still thick, but looking straight up he saw a single star, and tried vaguely to reckon whether it were Sirius[.]
Ethan's attempt to choose his own fate ends in disaster. He falters at the last second, unable to break free from the moral and environmental factors that have shaped so much of his life.
Wharton's use of stars as a symbol of fate reflects the influence of the Naturalist movement, which emphasized themes like determinism and the indifference of nature. Although people in Ethan Frome ascribe different meanings to the stars, they are ultimately unthinking objects and therefore uninterested in human affairs.
In Ethan Frome, the motif of spring and summer represents the warmth and happiness that Ethan derives from his relationship with Mattie. At multiple points throughout the novel, Wharton uses similes to associate Mattie with various aspects of these seasons. Since the novel takes place during winter, which is known to cause isolation and even insanity for the inhabitants of Starkfield, these similes illustrate how Mattie is a source of warmth and companionship for Ethan.
In Chapter 2, the image of springtime is used to demonstrate how comfortable and confident Ethan feels in Mattie's presence:
Her wonder and his laughter ran together like spring rills in a thaw.
In this passage, the interaction between Ethan and Mattie is likened to streams produced by the melting of winter snow in spring. This simile reflects how Ethan, who has long felt unappreciated by his wife, Zeena, is also beginning to "thaw" as a result of Mattie's influence. After a long "winter" of isolation and unhappiness, he is becoming more light-hearted.
Later on in the same chapter, the image of the stream recurs, this time paired with the image of summertime:
They walked on as if they were floating on a summer stream.
In both passages, the image of the flowing stream evokes a sense of change and movement, which contrasts sharply with the mundane inertia that characterizes life in Starkfield in the winter. In this passage, the word "floating" also reflects the dreamlike and insubstantial quality of Ethan's thoughts: as he walks with Mattie, he idly imagines a life with her but takes no direct action to make his dreams a reality. This lack of action hints at a more sinister aspect of spring and summer—the warmth and easiness of these seasons can lull someone into a false sense of security, making them forget about the harsh reality of winter.
In Chapter 5, Wharton once again associates Mattie with summertime:
[H]er face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat field under a summer breeze.
This simile reinforces Mattie's lively nature. Unlike Zeena, who is stagnant and unyielding, Mattie moves and changes like stalks of wheat bending in the wind. By comparing Mattie to a field of wheat, a staple crop, Wharton also associates her with life and abundance. The simile is complicated by the fact that Ethan, as a farmer, is responsible for planting and harvesting crops. This comparison therefore implies that Ethan, whose actual farm is barren and unproductive, views Mattie as something he can successfully cultivate and harvest, rather than seeing her as an equal partner.
Even after Ethan and Mattie's love story ends in tragedy, spring and summer still carry a hopeful connotation. In the novel's Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that the changing of the seasons represents a small source of reprieve for the Fromes:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier..."
Sadly, Mattie has lost both her sweet nature and her ability to move, which were the characteristics that connected her to spring and summer. Now, these seasons represent only a meager respite from the oppressive nature of life at the Frome farm.
At multiple points throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the motif of living death to emphasize the gloomy atmosphere of Starkfield and foreshadow the novel's tragic conclusion.
The motif is first introduced during the Prologue, when the Narrator describes Ethan as a "ruin of a man" who "looks as if he was dead and in hell," implying that although Ethan is physically alive, he is metaphorically dead. The motif recurs later in the Prologue, when the Narrator sees the Frome farmhouse and notices the "black wraith of a deciduous creeper" hanging above the porch. The deciduous vine, which sheds its leaves in the winter, represents the barrenness of the Frome farm and is an ideal symbol for living death—although still alive, the plant appears dead, a concept reinforced by the phrase "black wraith.
The juxtaposition of life and death continues in Chapter 2 when Ethan and Mattie pass by the Frome family graveyard on their way back to the farmhouse, and Ethan is reminded of his mortality:
[W]henever he went in or out of his gate he thought with a shiver: "I shall just go on living here till I join them."
Ethan must pass by the graveyard every time he enters or leaves his house, which means that day of his life carries with it a reminder of his eventual death. This preoccupation with death is amplified by the recurring image of the vine:
A dead cucumber-vine dangled from the porch like the crape streamer tied to the door for a death, and the thought flashed through Ethan's brain: "If it were there for Zeena—"
In this passage, a once-living piece of organic material (the vine) is compared to a man-made symbol of death, and astute readers will deduce that this is the same vine that the Narrator sees more than 20 years later, implying that farmhouse has remained unchanged during that time and reminding them that Ethan's story is destined to end in tragedy.
As the novel continues, Wharton continues to use simile and metaphor and expand the motif of living death. Later in Chapter 2, she likens the interior of Frome farmhouse to tomb by describing the kitchen as having "the deadly chill of a vault." In Chapter 6, the broken pickle-dish is compared to a "dead body," foreshadowing how Ethan and Mattie's bodies will become broken after the accident, dooming them to a state of living death. And in Chapter 9, the darkness and silence of the spruces make it so that Ethan and Mattie seem to be "in their coffins underground." Even though the characters are alive, their surroundings make it seem as though they are already dead and buried, foreshadowing how their fate will be shaped by external circumstances.
In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explicitly states that Ethan, Mattie, and Zeena appear to exist in a state of living death:
"[T]he way they are now, I don't see's there's much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard"
Wharton seems to imply that the only thing that separated Ethan from his dead relatives was his ability to actively change his own fate. Since he never exercised this ability, which is only reserved for the living, he has doomed himself to a facsimile of death.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Mattie is consistently associated with the motif of fire, light, and heat.
The reader is first introduced to Mattie in Chapter 1, when Ethan glimpses her through the window of the church:
The metal reflectors of the gas-jets sent crude waves of light against the whitewashed walls, and the iron flanks of the stove at the end of the hall looked as though they were heaving with volcanic fires.
The warm, well-lit interior of the church and the energy of the dancers within it contrast with the cold night outside, where Ethan waits alone. Fire, which is often used to symbolize desire, represents Ethan's longing for Mattie, while the simile comparing the stoves to "volcanic fires" foreshadows the ultimately destructive nature of this desire.
Later in the same chapter, Ethan uses a simile to explicitly compares Mattie to fire:
But it was not only that the coming to his house of a bit of hopeful young life was like the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth.
Throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton portrays Starkfield winters as harsh, isolating, and capable of inducing insanity in the town's inhabitants. In this environment, fire represents life and comfort, physically protecting people from the cold but also helping them to resist the maddening effects of isolation. Mattie provides Ethan with similar comfort—she is the one source of hope and happiness in his otherwise dismal life.
Although fire usually signifies sexual desire, in Chapter 4, Wharton also uses it as a symbol of domestic bliss:
A bright fire glowed in the stove and the cat lay stretched before it, watching the table with a drowsy eye.
In this passage, the fire in the stove serves as an integral part of the image of domestic contentment between Ethan and Mattie.
By the end of the novel, Ethan and Mattie's desire for one another has led to the destruction of both their lives. In the Epilogue, Mrs. Hale explains to the Narrator that their plight is particularly arduous during the winter, when they must constantly keep the fire going to stave off the cold:
"In the summertime, on pleasant days, they move Mattie into the parlour, or out in the door-yard, and that makes it easier... but winters there's the fires to be thought of; and there ain't a dime to spare up at the Fromes.'”
By this point, fire has lost its positive connotations and is portrayed as an inconvenient necessity that only serves to make life at the Frome house more difficult. This shift reflects the influence of the Naturalist movement on Ethan Frome. Like other Naturalist writers, Wharton rejects the notion that human beings have a spiritual connection to nature, which was an integral part of the earlier Romantic movement. Fire, the novel argues, is a natural force, so it is fundamentally neutral and uncaring, despite the meanings that people ascribe to it.
