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Foil
Explanation and Analysis—Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum:
At several points throughout Ethan Frome, Wharton uses the characters of Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum as foils for Ethan and Mattie.
In Chapter 2, Mattie tells Ethan that the couple was nearly killed in a sledding accident on the Corbury Road, and her tone seems to subtly express her affection for Ethan:
[T]he inflection with which she had said of the engaged couple "They're so happy!" made the words sound as if she had been thinking of herself and him.
Mattie views the relationship between Ned and Ruth as an idealized version of the relationship she has with Ethan, a view that Ethan appears to share. In Chapter 4, when he catches Ruth and Ned kissing each other, his thoughts immediately stray to Mattie, and he recognizes the fundamental difference between the two couples:
What did it matter to Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum is they were caught kissing each other? Everybody in Starkfield knew they were engaged. 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.
Despite the strict cultural rules that govern interactions between men and women when the novel takes place, Ned and Ruth are willing to put these obligations aside in order to express their love. Ethan, meanwhile, is too bound by duty and moral obligation to openly express his affection for Mattie. Ned and Ruth's relationship is also public knowledge and accepted by everyone in the community, so they have no need to hide their desire for one another and are free to marry. Ethan and Mattie's relationship, by contrast, must remain a secret because of Ethan's marriage to Zeena. If it were ever to become public knowledge, both participants would suffer, though the consequences would likely be worse for Mattie, since it would destroy her chance of finding a husband in the future. This passage reminds the reader that Ethan could technically break the rules of society to follow his heart, as Ned and Ruth do, but he chooses not to.
Due to these similarities and differences, Ned and Ruth's near-accident foreshadows Ethan and Mattie's accident at the end of the climax of the novel. Ned and Ruth did not intend to hit the tree at the bottom of the hill, and they both emerge unscathed from their experience. Ethan and Mattie, by contrast, purposefully steer their sled into the tree in an attempt to commit suicide, and both are left permanently disabled. Once again, external forces appear to protect Ned and Ruth while also punishing Ethan and Mattie.
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