Internal Conflict In Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton

Many have experienced the miserable dilemma that two conflicting desires can create. The eighteenth-century British novelist Laurence Stern once wrote, “Nobody, but he who has felt it, can conceive what a plaguing thing it is to have a man’s mind torn asunder by two projects of equal strength, both obstinately pulling in a contrary direction at the same time” in concurrence to this forlorn issue. Whether it is because of two compelling needs, aspirations, responsibilities, or influences, the means by which the person resolves this predicament speaks a great deal about his or her character. In the short novel Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton, the protagonist is faced with such a decision. Constricted by poverty, geographical isolation, and the confines of society, the end results of his perilous decision will alter his life perpetually.
In the beginning of the novel, Ethan appears to be “bleak and unapproachable” and a “ruin of a man.” Ethan is poor but seems to be a rather simple, straightforward, and decent person. After his mother’s death, he marries a woman named Zeena who forces him to live in the cold, desolate town of Starkfield. She becomes a hypochondriac, and Ethan finds himself captive to his farm, the sawmill, and Zeena’s incessant complaining. His interest in Zeena’s cousin, Mattie, grows as he finds her to be a kindred spirit who understands him. She is youthful and beautiful and contrasts to the ill and shrewish image of