Ethan Frome

These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the novel.

Pre-Reading “Icebreaker”

Ethan Frome is technically a first-person narrative, with the novel’s speaker—an outsider to the community—reconstructing Ethan’s story as best he can. Imagine your own life story is being told, either in book or movie form. Who would you choose to write or direct it, and why?

Teaching Suggestion: Perspective and subjectivity are key issues in Ethan Frome, even informing the novel’s premise: The numerous parallels between the narrator and Ethan probably help pique the former’s interest in the latter but may also color his interpretation of Frome’s story. Use this prompt to get students thinking about the role framing plays in a story’s meaning(s). Have they selected the writer/director they believe would depict their story most faithfully, or are factors beyond strict accuracy important in conveying the “truth” of their experiences?

• “Make It Short: Edith Wharton’s Modernist Practices in Her Short Stories” is a scholarly discussion of Wharton’s use of unreliable narrators in the context of modernist literature.
• “Unreliable Narrators” from It’s Lit features a series of visual essays from PBS Digital Studios.
• A New Yorker article, “A Rooting Interest,” discusses sympathy in Wharton’s work.

Personal Response Prompt

The ending of Ethan Frome is almost notoriously bleak. How did you respond to the “smash-up” and its aftermath? Did it strike you as a fitting ending? What kind of effect do you think Wharton was aiming for, and do you think she succeeded? How did your emotional response to this novel differ (if at all) from works that deal with similar subject matter (e.g., Romeo and Juliet)?

Teaching Suggestion: The final chapters of Ethan Frome cover a lot of difficult subject matter—not just the suicide attempt itself, but also the strong implication that Ethan and Mattie would have been better off if they had in fact died. The subjective nature of this prompt gives students space to start working through the novel’s events, but it can also segue into a more analytical discussion of why Wharton denies Ethan and Mattie the cleaner ending of a work like Romeo and Juliet (in particular, what it says about the novel’s views on human agency).

• For more ideas on how to approach the novel’s depiction of suicide, read this School Library Journal article about teaching Romeo and Juliet from a mental health perspective.

Post-Reading Analysis

Before Ethan and Mattie decide to attempt suicide, Ethan considers several other courses of action. What other options are available to the novel’s characters, and why do they ultimately reject them? What sorts of social, economic, and temperamental factors contribute to Ethan’s sense that there is no solution to the situation in which he, Mattie, and Zeena find themselves?

Teaching Suggestion: Numerous obstacles—many relating either to industrialization’s effects or to 19th-century gender norms—propel the novel towards its conclusion. For example, students may note that women’s limited financial prospects factor strongly into Ethan’s considerations; he knows that Mattie, once dismissed from the Fromes’ household, has few options beyond low-wage (and likely dangerous) factory work, but he also recognizes that Zeena depends on him financially and therefore doesn’t feel he can elope with Mattie. Ethan’s property has also depreciated as a result of industrialization, meaning that he cannot simply bank on Zeena selling the farm for a profit (or indeed at all). You may also want to use this prompt to push students on whether Ethan’s situation is truly as insoluble as it seems—whether, for example, a more decisive character might have handled things differently.

• Professor Joan Waugh (UCLA) offers an overview of women’s status and roles in late 19th-century America.
• “The Economics of American Farm Unrest, 1865-1900" contextualizes some of the problems Ethan faces in terms of broader economic trends.