How does ethan feel about mattie

Since he mentioned to Zeena that he would be receiving cash for the lumber load, Ethan decides to go ahead and ask Andrew Hale for a small direct payment. After unloading the lumber, Hale invites Ethan into his office, and Ethan requests an advance of fifty dollars. Hale politely refuses, citing his own financial constraints, and after a further exchange of civilities, Ethan leaves Hale to conduct some other business in the village.

With the afternoon drawing to a close, the street stands relatively empty. After an interval of solitude, a swiftly moving horse-drawn sleigh carrying Denis Eady passes Ethan and heads in the direction of the Frome farm. Ethan feels a fleeting pang of jealousy, which he quickly suppresses as unworthy of his affections for Mattie. Under the cover of the Varnum spruces, Ethan happens upon Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, locked together in a clandestine embrace. Realizing that they are being watched, the kissing couple quickly separates and departs.

Ethan is left to reminisce about the scene, which, he notes, has taken place in the very spot where he and Mattie stood hesitating the previous night. Ethan makes the long climb back to the farm. He imagines her preparing herself for supper, and he thinks back to the evening of her arrival, when she had taken such care with her appearance.

On his way to the house, Ethan passes a gravestone that he has often considered a curiosity. She wants to have fun, to frolic and play, and to have romance — though only, it seems, with Ethan. But what's your opinion? As a young woman, Mattie seems to be truly in love with Ethan. Everything from turning down Denis Eady to declaring her love indicates that her affection for Ethan is sincere.

If she simply wanted an easy way out of poverty, she could have married Denis Eady and been mistress to the Eady grocery fortune. What we don't know is how Mattie feels about Ethan after the accident.

That is, did she fall out of love with Ethan, or does she continue to love him even at the story's close? That we can't answer this question is part of what gives Ethan Frome its sense of tragedy. If Ethan and Mattie are still in love and still living with Zeena, then it sounds like the situation is truly awful.

If they are no longer in love, that's perhaps even worse. It's not Ethan but Mattie who initially suggests the suicide. Did this surprise you? This moment opens up her character. Just before, we learn that Mattie had fantasized about running away with Ethan some eight or nine months ago. Until now, Ethan and us, the reader hasn't know how she really feels about him.

Now we understand that Mattie really wants to be with Ethan. Furthermore, she'd rather die than be without him. Since we can't track Mattie's inner movement to this point, we can't say whether the idea of suicide came upon her all the sudden, or if she had been considering it all along. We know that Mattie was afraid Zeena was suspicious, and we know Mattie doesn't have anywhere else to go. She was probably way ahead of Ethan in seeing the hopelessness of their situation.

That is, she probably already predicted that Ethan wouldn't or couldn't run away with her. Being a single woman with no money and virtually no education would be rough going. This story seems to be showing us how limited the options were for women in the Victorian period. When we meet Mattie in the Epilogue , we see that her physical transformation is even more drastic than Ethan's.

Mattie would only be about 45 years old at the end of the book, but is described as having not only aged drastically, but also of having "soured. After unhitching the horse from its post and setting the cutter in motion, Eady confidently calls out to Mattie to hop in. She politely declines. When Eady attempts to pick her up by linking arms with her, she draws away gracefully. She is genuinely caught off guard by his trick and lets out a peal of laughter that thrills Ethan. Ethan says they can sled there the following night if the moon is out.

Mattie mentions that Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, a young engaged couple, nearly collided with the big elm at the bottom of the hill when they were sledding. Left at an impasse, the couple drops the subject wordlessly, and Ethan and Mattie continue on their way. At the Frome gate, Ethan attempts to reassure Mattie, and the companions then draw together as they ascend the hill.

Ethan, meditating on the prospect of being with Mattie always, puts his arm decidedly around her for the first time. At the back door of the dark house, Ethan searches for the key that Zeena usually leaves out for them, but he finds nothing. When Ethan kneels down for a more thorough search, he spies a faint ray of light behind the door.