This is not the fault of Ethan because he has been supressed and tortured so long that all he has is hope and Mattie personifies hope herself. Ethan dreams of escape, as any natural person in his situation would, and sees Mattie as his true love and his chance to escape. Mattie is everything Ethan dreams of and lusts after, however he cannot escape the horrible tyrant Zeena who keeps him under her thumb. The suffering of Ethan Frome continues and even still is caused not by Ethan but by the temptress, albeit unintentional at that, Mattie Silver. This continuous prolonging of Ethan’s horrible human condition and the abusive treatment from both his mother and Zeena lead Ethan to dream and hope of escape from Starkfield which leads to more pain and suffering. The reader can see his apprehension to leave Zeena because of his morals, and even after his near death experience Ethan says that he “ought to be getting him his feed” showing his compassion towards a simple horse and if we delve deeper his compassion to the awful Zeena. The fact that Ethan is a decent man is the only thing that can be controlled by him, and by making the moral choice to stick by his morals he is put in a position of agony. He is a victim of a horrible circumstance and is completely trapped by his morals of decency.
Ethan cannot control the events that happen to him. Soon after his mother dies, Zeena takes the same place of Ethan’s mother adding to his misery and suffering. It is during this time he meets Zeena, who eventually becomes his wife. There warn’t ever anybody but Ethan”(Wharton 6). As said by Harmon Gow, “Somebody had to stay and care for the folks. Ethan had an assumably normal childhood, however, when he tries to escape Starkfield for good, he is brought back from college to care for his ailing mother who treats him badly.
One of the major ways in which Ethan Frome himself suffers is the fact that he constantly slaves over his wife and mother.
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