He remembers the morning when Zeena observed him shaving and he realized that Zeena is aware of everything that goes on around her — in spite of her illnesses. Feeling shy because of his recollections of Zeena and his reaction to Mattie's attentions to Eady, Ethan decides to test Mattie and see if she will ride home with Eady. Mattie refuses Eady and as she goes off alone to walk home, Ethan catches up with her.
He feels happy by what he perceives as her choice of him over Eady. The couple stops for a moment above the Corbury hill as Mattie tells Ethan about Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum's brush with death as their sled almost hit the elm tree on its downhill run. Because Ethan is insecure, he intimates that Mattie will be leaving the Fromes' house to marry Eady.
Mattie interprets Ethan's comment about the fact that she might want to marry Eady to mean that Zeena wants her gone. She apologizes for her inadequacies as a houseworker, and asks Ethan to clarify what he means.
Ethan, however, is unable to communicate his true feelings. Approaching the farmhouse, Ethan is reassured that Mattie will not marry Eady. He walks arm in arm with her and when she stumbles, uses the opportunity to put his arm around her. When they reach the back door, they cannot find the door key that Zeena always leaves for them.
As Ethan searches for the key in the snow, he sees light under the door and Zeena opens it. She hadn't put the key out because she was up; she felt "so mean" she could not sleep. After scolding Ethan and Mattie about the snow on their boots, Zeena starts to go off to bed; Ethan does not want to follow her upstairs to their bedroom but thinks he sees Mattie blink him a warning, so he gives in to his wife and goes to bed.
Chapter 1 begins the main story of Ethan Frome, which takes place about twenty-four years earlier than the prologue and epilogue and describes the three and a half days before and including the "smash-up" Mattie and Ethan's sledding accident. Wharton shifts the point of view in this chapter from the first person to the limited omniscient point of view. The limited omniscient point of view allows Wharton to relate the thoughts and feelings of only one character.
In Ethan Frome , Wharton relates the thoughts and feelings of Ethan. As the story opens, Wharton continues the imagery and symbolism of the winter setting in Starkfield. The first paragraph describes the winter night when Ethan walks into town to meet Mattie at the church. It is windy, and there is two feet of snow on the ground; the stars shine like icicles and Orion seems to be a "cold fire. Wharton's intention is to emphasize the bitterness and hardness of the winter by describing a star in a "sky of iron.
Wharton uses imagery associated with winter to characterize Zeena, and imagery of spring and summer to represent Mattie. When Ethan reaches the church, he stays in "pure and frosty darkness," analogous to the silence and isolation he experiences and in opposition to the happy sociability of the interior of the church which he sees in "a mist of heat" caused by the "volcanic fires" from the stove in the room.
Ethan feels that Mattie's effect on him is like "the lighting of a fire on a cold hearth. In contrast to the warm, summer imagery associated with Mattie is the imagery that represents the cold, isolation, and death of spirit inherent during the winter months and apparently present in the Frome farmhouse. Returning home from the church, Ethan and Mattie see farmhouses that seem to be "mute and cold as a gravestone.
Their lives become cold and dead and Ethan experiences more intense silence and isolation than he did before Mattie came into his life. Wharton reveals important aspects of Ethan's character and introduces readers to Zeena and Mattie. Ethan is an intelligent man; he spent time at a technological college, but had to quit and return home when his father died.
His schooling "made him aware of huge cloudy meanings behind the daily face of things. He retreats into his thoughts to avoid the pain of reality. Ethan's thoughts are sometimes imprecise and irrational — they too often consist of illusions or half-truths rather than clear intuitions or reasoned conclusions. Ethan constantly tries to analyze and control what is happening in the present and dreams and wonders about the future.
Wharton introduces Mattie through Ethan's thoughts while he is waiting for her by the church window. Mattie is first identified as Zeena's cousin, who has come to Starkfield as a household helper, and is allowed to go into town from the farm to attend social activities. According to Ethan's perspective, Mattie is the happy opposite of the cold and complaining Zeena. The tense silence and isolation that dominates Ethan's marriage to Zeena is not present in his relationship with Mattie.
In contrast to Zeena, Mattie has a sensitive nature and is able to communicate with Ethan and Ethan with her. Mattie shares his appreciation of natural beauty. When Mattie exclaims that a sunset looks "just as if it was painted," Ethan feels as though he has found his soul mate. As a result of his secret feelings for Mattie, Ethan often tries to escape the reality of his marriage by indulging in self-illusion, or fantasies.
As Ethan continues to watch Mattie from outside the window of the church, he feels fearful because Eady is flirting with Mattie. After unhitching the horse from its post and setting the cutter in motion, Eady confidently calls out to Mattie to hop in.
She politely declines. When Eady attempts to pick her up by linking arms with her, she draws away gracefully. She is genuinely caught off guard by his trick and lets out a peal of laughter that thrills Ethan. Ethan says they can sled there the following night if the moon is out.
Mattie mentions that Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, a young engaged couple, nearly collided with the big elm at the bottom of the hill when they were sledding. Left at an impasse, the couple drops the subject wordlessly, and Ethan and Mattie continue on their way.
At the Frome gate, Ethan attempts to reassure Mattie, and the companions then draw together as they ascend the hill. Ethan, meditating on the prospect of being with Mattie always, puts his arm decidedly around her for the first time. At the back door of the dark house, Ethan searches for the key that Zeena usually leaves out for them, but he finds nothing.
When Ethan kneels down for a more thorough search, he spies a faint ray of light behind the door. The door then opens to reveal Zeena, a sickly, complaining woman. Zeena explains that she was unable to sleep on account of her poor health, and she brings her lamp around to the stairs to light the way up.
Ethan declares that he will be staying downstairs for a while, as he has some accounts to review. When Zeena dismisses the idea as a foolish one, he submissively follows her and Mattie upstairs, retiring into the bedroom with his wife. Given his sensitivity to place, it is no surprise that Ethan feels especially energized during his nighttime walks home from town with Mattie.
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