The quiet town of Starkfield, Massachusetts silently and solemnly watches the unfolding story of Ethan Frome, his loathsome wife Zeena, and the vivacious Mattie Silver and their tragic love triangle. When Mattie Silver, a cousin of Zeena's, comes to live on the Frome's run-down farm to care for Zeena and her constant illnesses, Ethan begins to understand what true love can do for a person. Mattie begins to restore light and meaning to Ethan's life, appearing to him as "a fairy maiden, a princess of nature" in Ethan's dark and boring world (Ammons 2). The dilemmas Ethan faces over whether or not to choose duty over personal desire occur frequently, causing Ethan many abrupt changes of heart. For a minute Ethan speculates about “what he and Mattie would experience when they reached the West” (Wharton 116). The next minute, he moves back in with Zeena due to a new financial or obligatory obstacle, continuing the internal cycle of arguments he has about his future. The reader knows from the beginning that Ethan turns out to be hopeless and “the ruin of a man” through the thoughts and relationships of a newcomer engineer (Wharton 3). However, the spark of hope that remains in the reader for Ethan's - or any of the characters' - happiness throughout the book is crushed with the arrival of the ending. The suicide attempt of the two lovers on the sled, ironically foiled by Zeena's repulsive face appearing in Ethan's mind and affecting his concentration, transforms Mattie "into a mirror image of Zeena" and forces her to stay at the Frome house until the death (Ammons 2). . Ethan Frome's final chapter reveals the horrific situation that "entraps all three" and forces them to despise each other and relive their past eve... middle of the paper... n't "You" are crazy” (Wharton 143). However, Ethan is non-confrontational and doesn't like to challenge others, which seems to be his fatal flaw. It seems that "the very heart of the novel is the weakness of Frome's character, his denial of life" (Bernard 6). Ethan's situation could be seen as a challenge to his character, to see if he could overcome his flaws to become a happy man. Ultimately, Ethan fails in the challenge Starkfield presented to him, choosing instead to “merge with winter forever” (Bernard 6). Works Cited Ammons, Elizabeth. “Ethan Frome and the Question of Meaning” by Edith Wharton. Studies in American Fiction, Vol. 7, no. 2, 1979, pp. 127-140. Bernard, Kenneth. “Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome.” University English, vol. 23, no. 1, October 1961, pp. 178-284. Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York: Classic Seal, 1911.