Ethan Frome

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Consider the novel’s setting, including Wharton’s depictions of the landscape and town and the significance of Starkfield’s name.

• What role does setting play in driving the novel’s plot and/or shaping its characters? (topic sentence)
• Identify three moments when the novel’s characters interact with or respond to their environment in some way. Analyze what these moments reveal about the importance of the novel’s setting, citing evidence from the text to support your claims.
• Finally, use your concluding sentence or sentences to summarize the relationship between Ethan Frome’s setting and the theme(s) of the limitations of human agency and/or industrialization’s effects on rural America.

2. Consider Wharton’s use of foreshadowing throughout the novel.

• How and why does Wharton use foreshadowing to hint at the novel’s conclusion? (topic sentence)
• Identify three moments of foreshadowing in the text and discuss their effect in light of the story’s ending. Consider word choice and phrasing; cite specific evidence to support your claims.
• Finally, use your concluding sentence or sentences to discuss what Ethan Frome’s use of foreshadowing says about its views on human agency.

3. As readers, we see Mattie and Zeena through Ethan’s eyes.

• How does Ethan view each of these women? (topic sentence)
• Compare and contrast the text’s depiction of Mattie and Zeena, considering the symbolism and imagery associated with each and the quality of their interactions with Ethan. Refer to at least two specific passages or episodes in your discussion of each woman.
• Finally, use your concluding sentence or sentences to discuss how Ethan’s relationships with Mattie and Zeena reflect the power dynamics of traditional gender norms.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Consider the role the narrator and frame story play in Ethan Frome. How does the narrator‘s identity (as a middle-class man, an engineer, etc.) reflect and interact with key textual concerns like the effects of industrialization? Does the narrator strike you as reliable, and does his reliability ultimately matter in terms of the novel’s meaning?

2. As Ethan worries that Zeena might be “turning” like his mother, he reflects, “Women did, he knew” (Chapter 4). Consider Zeena’s health problems/hypochondria, Mattie’s sickliness when she first arrives in Starkfield, and the decline of Ethan’s mother. What is the relationship between illness and gender in Ethan Frome? Are these illnesses “real,” or do they in some way stem from frustration with female gender norms? What role does class play in this issue?

3. Consider sledding as both a motif and a method of attempted suicide. How do Ethan and Mattie talk about sledding in the days before the attempt? Why do they argue about who should sit where when they get on the sled for the last time? How does the novel depict their final run, and what does this suggest about the limits of human agency?