Who is Mattie Silver and why is her presence so important to Ethan Frome? Her presence is important to Frome, because he likes her and she brings joy to him. 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.
Skip to content Technology. March 20, Joe Ford. The love Ethan and Mattie share is palpable, in their boastful, flirting language, but they never actually get up the courage to admit their feelings. The tale of another young couple's narrow escape foreshadows Ethan and Mattie's sledding accident. Ethan's boast that he can guide the sled to safety indicates his desire to prove his masculinity to Mattie. Determinism and Free Will. Wanting to find out for sure whether Mattie has feelings for Denis , Ethan mentions that other people have been saying that Mattie will be leaving the Frome household.
Mattie, however, thinks that Ethan is referring to Zeena 's dissatisfaction with the way she does the housework. Mattie is clearly distressed at the prospect of having to leave, and this reassures Ethan. Though Mattie's feelings for Ethan are obvious, Ethan can't quite believe it.
Meanwhile, the mention of Zeena's dissatisfaction with Mattie already makes clear that if they want to stay together they will have to act in some way. Instead, they do nothing. As Ethan and Mattie walk through the snowy landscape to the farm, they pass under hemlock trees and the graveyard where Ethan's ancestors are buried.
Normally Ethan feels that the gravestones are mocking his inability to get away from Starkfield, but this night he wants things to stay as they are forever, with Mattie at his side. Ethan's feelings that the gravestones mock him show his frustrated ambitions.
But his delusional belief that things will just stay as they are hints that his ambitions were thwarted at least in part by his own failure to take action. Related Quotes with Explanations. As they approach the darkened farmhouse, Ethan puts his arms around Mattie. She does not resist. A dead cucumber vine dangling from the porch reminds Ethan that if Zeena were to die, he and Mattie would be free to marry.
The dead vine's appearance at this intimate moment between Ethan and Mattie is foreboding. Ethan's hope that Zeena will die is another example of Ethan's passive daydreaming. The key that Zeena normally leaves under the doormat isn't there, and the guilty lovers experience a moment of panic.
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