Loneliness In Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome

“Ethan Frome” is a novel by Edith Wharton written primarily in third person point of view. The story was set in the small town of Startfield, New England. During the time period, that the story was told, the season was winter. With this, Wharton portrays the town as cold and desolate and this is shown when the narrator states, “or through the thin obscurity of a clump of leafless trees” (22). This shows that the environment is not very appealing and plain. This kind of environment emits a sense of loneliness. In all this despair, Ethan finds light in his wife’s cousin Mattie Silver who is staying in the Frome house hold to help Ethan’s sickly wife. Ethan longs to be with Mattie but due to his own commitments and responsibilities, he cannot.