mmons believes thatthe novel dramatizes sexual repression and bitter disillusion with love. Ethanscharacter, throughout the novel, realizes that love is not accommodating or easy. He isforced to choose between two different women which he loves, but in different ways. Thelove triangle going on between Zeena, Mattie and Ethan present stirring questions ofmorality. Is it allowable behavior for Ethan to leave Zeena the revolting nag and spend histime with the warm and affectionate Mattie (Poepsel, p.1)? When Ethan and Mattiedecide to sled into a tree and kill themselves, they are trying to escape that situation whichso complicates their lives and challenges their morals. Their quest ultimately fails whenthey are merely hurt in the accident. After this event, the roles reverse and Zeena is forcedto take care of the two while they have to live through a painful existence apart andcrippled. In the beginning of Ethan Frome, Zeena appears to be totally dependent onEthan and Mattie, but the question posed by critic Mark Poepsel is: Was Zeena reallydependent on Ethan all those years? The answer is no. Zeena is a hypochondriac whofinds the wrong in nearly every situation. When she doesnt have someone else to carefor, she finds disease in herself (Poepsel, p.1). As Ammons said, Prince charming,properly understood, liberates his heroine into a life of permanent dependence. I could only find one point in which the novel Ethan Frome was criticizednegatively. Critics Bjorkman and Poepsel both commented that the novel lacks insuspense. From the start, the smash-up lies over the pages of the book (Bjorkman,p.550). However, I believe that this was merely foreshadowing used by Wharton and itadds to the story. As well, I found the pages preceding the smash-up to be verysuspenseful because one cannot predict what the outcome might be. I do not agree withPoepsel and Bjorkman when they say that the novel lacks suspense and has too muchforesha...
