Jermaine Williams Mrs Koolis American LiteratureEthan Frome EssayIn Ethan Frome, There are different characters that can be characterized as protagonist, orantagonist . These characters consist of Ethan, and Zenaida. Ethan can be identified as the protagonist of the story, while Zeena being the antagonist.
There are multiple reasons as to why these Characters are characterized the way that they are.I characterized Ethan as the protagonist for many reasons, one being he is the main character of the novel. He is important because without him there would be no book. In the beginning of the novel Ethan is walking very awkwardly and it leads the reader and evan the author to question why he is walking like that. “He was the most striking figure in Starkfield” (Wharton 1). It also makes the reader want to know how he got where he was. Finding out about the “smash up” makes the reader even more intrigued into the book.
“He has looked that way ever since he had his Smash-up;and thats twenty four years ago come next February”(1). To add on the the reasons that Ethan is a protagonist is that he had there dreams that he would eventually move away and make something of himself. Those hopes and dreams ended when he went to go take care of his parents. When his parents passed he could not follow through with his original plans because it was winter. Winter has a important role in this story because of what it took away from Ethan, Because if his parents had passed away in the spring he would’ve moved out. He had hopes to become an engineer, but the death of his parents and the weather would preventWilliams1 him from doing so. Ethan is the “good guy” but as the story continues it shows that Ethan cheats on his wife with Mattie silver and then attempts suicide with her so he wouldn’t have to live the life he didn’t want.Zeena would be characterized as the antagonist for many reasons.
One point being that she goes against the main character Ethan. Zeena is very dominate but is the weakest link too. She is always sick, and has been for a long while. Whenever she goes to the doctors she is throwing money out the window, and it makes Ethan have to work harder. She is very needy and pathetic. She whines a lot and really makes it hard on Ethan to move on and do things with Mattie. But when she starts to figure out about the Ethan and Mattie situation she tries to get rid of her. She also locks them out, which is weirs because Zeena never locks the door and when she does she usually leave the key outside.
But when Ethan realizes the key isn’t there he starts to panic, and Zeena comes to open the door that is her saying that she knows about Ethan and Mattie. “It’s not there. Such a thing had never happened before. Maybe she’s forgotten it… but both of them knew that it was not like Zeena to forget” (21-22). The next example of this is the pickle dish being broken.
This is a symbol their marriage being broken and not being able to be put back together. It alyson stops Mattie and Ethan from doing anything that night alone. For more When Mattie and Ethan get into their Smash Up, Zeena out of nowhere miraculously gets better to help the two. Zeena starts feeling better and Ethan and Mattie have to live together knowing that they tried to get away from the women that is now taking care of them.
They are living lives they never wanted.In conclusion, Ethan, and Zeena both had different reasons in the story that made them become the Protagonist and or the Antagonist. Ethan Had many reasons in the story for being theWilliams2 protagonist , and the same going for Zeena for the being the Antagonist. And they all had an effect on shaping up the outcome of the story.Williams3
