Ethan Frome Lecture Notes Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards identifying key characters, settings, symbols, and plot points from the lecture transcript on Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome.

Starkfield

A boring, small rural town that contains a church and a post office.

Narrator

An engineer who came to Starkfield to do work at a local powerhouse.

Ethan Frome

A 52-year-old man standing 6'2 with scars on his face and a limp, who studied physics in college and survived a major 'smash up' at age 28.

Herman

A talkative driver who transports people around town and gives the narrator initial information about Ethan.

Denis Eady

A young, wealthy Irish grocer whose family owns a local business; Ethan is jealous of him dancing with Mattie.

Mattie Silver

Zeena's young, kind-hearted cousin who acts as an unpaid housekeeper for the Fromes after becoming homeless at age 20 and selling her piano for $50$.

Zeena Frome

Ethan's unattractive, perpetually angry, and sick wife who initially nursed Ethan's sick mother before marrying him.

The Pickle Dish

A one-of-a-kind red glass wedding gift that Zeena never used, which is accidentally broken by the cat during Ethan and Mattie's dinner.

Jotham Powell

A hired farmer who works on the Frome farm and drives Zeena to her doctor's appointment out of town.

Andrew Hale

A local builder whom Ethan asks for an advance payment to fund Zeena's medical trip.

The 'Smash Up'

A suicide attempt where Ethan and Mattie ride a sled directly into a big tree, resulting in Mattie becoming paralyzed from the neck down.

Central Theme of Ethan Frome

The overarching message that life is one continuous disaster and there is nothing you can do about it.