Ethan Frome, the main character in the book entitled Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, has many complex problems occurring at the same time. His parents have died and he has a wife who is continually sick, and the only form of happiness he has is from his wife's cousin Mattie. This, at times proves to be hard because of Ethan’s wife's interference. Nothing seems to be going in Ethan's favor. The main theme of …showed first 75 words of 709 total…

…showed last 75 words of 709 total…controlled him. The “smash-up” happened because of her jealousy toward Mattie. It seemed that everything Ethan tried to do worked against his favor, no matter how hard he tried. With all the incidents that happened it seemed inevitable that his life would always be a string of failures. Ethan can’t even succeed at ending his own life. Upon learning of this final failure Ethan says: “Oh Matt, I thought we’d fetched it…” (Ethan, 126)