POST: Key Quote from Ethan Frome

"There was something bleak and unapproachable in his face, and he was so stiffened and grizzled that i took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was not more than fifty-two"

I think this quote is extremely important becuase it rele set the mood for the play. It also helped to create a first impression of Ethan, without even meeting him. With this quote we being to think of him as a mean, smug, lonely hermit when in reality he has a most interesting story to tell about why he lives the way he does.

"'Would you like to come in and coast with them some night?'....'Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum came just as near running into the big elm at the bottom. We were all sure they were killed (pg. 19).'"

This passage foreshadows the accident that Ethan and Mattie will get into towards the end of the novel. By giving an example of someone who almost died in the same type of accident, one now has some idea as to what will happen to the two characters in the end. The same snow covered hill and tree where the accident will take place is described in this passage as well. Although Ethan and Mattie are fully aware of the consequences that can happen if they sled down the hill, they nonetheless decide to risk a deadly accident.

" her light figure swinging from hand to hand in circles of cinreasing swiftness, the scarf flew off her head and stood out behind her shoulders, and Frome, at each turn, caught sight of her laughing panting lips, the cloud of dark hair about her forehead, and the dark eyes which seemed the only fixed points in a maze of flying lines" (p 13).

I really like this quote because Edith Wharton does a really good job describing Mattie in this scene. I could picture how she looks like and it also depicts how much Ethan adores Mattie.

Description of Ethan Frome's House:
"The snow had ceased, and a flash of watery sunlight exposed the house on the clope above us in all it's plaintive ugliness. The black wraith of a decidious creeper flapped from the porch, and the thin wooden walls, under their worn coal of paint, seemed to shiver in the wind that had risen with the ceasing of the snow". (22).

This shows, in much detail, what Ethan Frome has to deal with on a daily basis. Even without experiencing harsh snowstorms and 'New England life', I feel like I'm a part of the story through the writer's words.
These few sentences show that his life isn't paradise. That he has dealt with tough weather and has lived in a miserable house for most of his life.

“Against the dark background of the kitchen she stood up tall and angular, one hand drawing a quilted counterpane to her flat breast, while the other held a lamp. The light, on a level with her chin, drew out of the darkness her puckered throat and the projecting wrist of the hand that clutched the quilt, and deepened fantastically the hollows and prominences of her high-boned face under its rings of crimping-pins.”

I liked the comparison between Mattie and Zeena, where Zeena is shown as a withered old woman whereas Mattie is shown as young and beautiful. It is a representation of Ethan's feelings towards the two women.

"The sunrise burned red in a pure sky, the shadows on the rim of the wood-lot were darkley blue, and beyond the white and scintillating fields patches of far-off forest hung like smoke." (24)

This is a beautiful example of the imagery and diction the author uses to describe backgrounds. It allows one to imagine the beauty of the scenery.