Comparisons and Contrasts in Ethan Frome
             Often in literature characters are found that are similar in one sense, yet totally different in others. In Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton portrayed two women, Zenobia "Zeena" Frome, and Mattie Silver, both of whom loved the tragic hero for whom the novel was named. Although both Zeena and Mattie were poor women with no hope of a better life, they were different in temperament and in the attitude in which they viewed their situation.
             Due to similar circumstances, Zeena and Mattie lived impoverished lives. Both women were poor relations who came to Starkfield to nurse a sick family member and wound up staying. Zeena came to take care of Ethan's mad mother; after her death, Ethan and Zeena were married, primarily because, "...when [Ethan] saw [Zeena] preparing to go away, he was seized with unreasoning dread of being left alone..."(29). Of course, Zeena and her kin also believed that Ethan owed her, after the years she spent taking care of his mother; as she later told him, "...my folks all told me at the time you couldn't do no less than marry me..."(48). They then became so immersed in taking care of the farm that they could not find the money to live elsewhere; they were stuck in Starkfield. Mattie's father had left her and her mother debt-ridden; in fact, "...Mattie, at twenty was left all alone to make her way on the fifty dollars obtained from the sale of her piano"(25). So Mattie came to nurse Zeena, who had developed a myriad set of illnesses over the years. Both became stuck in a never-ending cycle of early twentieth-century, rural New England economics. Zeena and Mattie were in the position quite a few women found themselves in; they had little or no education and no way of earning a living independently of their husband and/or family.
             However, Zeena and Mattie differed dramatically in temperament. Zeena was very aloof, almost to the point of appearing sullen. She ke
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