Compare and Contrast of Zeena and Mattie

In the novel, Ethan Frome, there are two women that are apart of Ethan Frome’s pitiable existence, Zeena and Mattie. There are both acutely different from each other but they also share some similarities between themselves. Zeena and Mattie are different in many ways in the matter of appearance, their outlook on life, and their interest in Ethan Frome but eventually it shows towards the end of the novel that Mattie is not so much distinct from these qualities after “the smash up”. The two main female characters, Zeena and Mattie differ in appearance quite a bit. Zeena is displayed as a prematurely aged woman that has, “grayish ting skin and false teeth” and her voice is like a “flat whine”. Making Zeena out to be unattractive in pretty much every way. While Mattie is characterized a young and beautiful which is portrayed by her, “long eyelashes” and by her wearing the color red, because having long eyelashes symbolizes great beauty and the color red represents passion and seduction. Towards the end of the novel though Mattie is no longer the striking, seductive, young woman that she once was. Instead she is no better in appearance in comparison to Zeena. So, Zeena and herself now share a common characteristic between them and irony is seen. Even though Mattie still most likely has an advantage in some ways in beauty it is minimal. In so the lust that Ethan had for Mattie was hastily gone. In regards to interest into Ethan Frome, they both had some but it was not black and white in any means. Zeena shows a miniscule amount of interest in the beginning of the novel, as she cares more for her own complications when she left Ethan and Mattie alone so for her benefit. Her lack of interest contrasts with Mattie’s sudden lust into Ethan Frome. Mattie and Ethan Frome share an attraction for each other while Ethan Frome is not attracted by Zeena any longer. She reacts with jealousy which can be seen as a form of interest in her spouse but it is mostly just out of pure