Reading Comprehension & Discussion Questions (Study Guide)
Come to class prepared to discuss the assigned section on the due date. Don’t be
shocked with a quiz.
The answers may be hand written or typed in a Word Document. Please title each
document with the section the questions cover. They are due by the dates indicated.
Prologue (Due__________/26)(50 points)
1. What is the narrator’s profession?
2. How does he get the story of Ethan Frome?
3. What intrigues the narrator about Ethan Frome? What burning question does
he want answered?
4. Characterize Ethan Frome physically. Provide details.
5. How long ago did the smash up happen?
6. What kinds of things is Ethan Frome picking up at the post office? Be more
specific than mail.
7. Describe Starkfield. What does its name suggest about the setting?
8. Why was the narrator staying in Starkfield for the winter?
9. For what was Ethan Frome hired by the narrator?
10. How does the narrator connect the impact of the setting with Ethan
Frome’s personality?
11. What bridged the distance and silence between the narrator and Ethan
Frome on rides to Corbury Flats?
12. Describe Frome’s home and land. What is the significance of the missing
L-structure on Frome’s farm?
13. What role do Herman Gow and Mrs. Ned Hale occupy in the story?
Chapters 1 & 2 (Due) (25 points)
1. Since we know from the Prologue that the novel involves a tragedy, what
foreshadowing devices has the author used? How is the setting itself used as
foreshadowing?
2. What do we learn about Ethan Frome in these opening chapters? How is
Ethan’s affection for Mattie explained?
3. How is Ethan’s conflict between his feelings for Mattie and those for Zeena
voiced?
4. Why is the missing door key significant?
Chapters 3 & 4 (Due______) (50 points)
1. How is Ethan’s conflict intensified in these chapters? What is the dread that
Ethan feels at “Zeena’s obstinate silence [and] Mattie’s sudden look of
warning…”? How does this reflect on Ethan’s character?
2. In the beginning of Chapter 3, Mattie and Zeena are contrasted. Describe
their contrasts and the overall significance of Wharton’s strategy of
juxtaposition here.
3. How do Zeena’s expeditions add to the burdens placed on Ethan?
4. Explain the turn of events at the end of Chapter 3. How is Ethan’s conflict
intensified?
5. How has each of the following contributed to Ethan’s isolation: A. his mother
B. Starkfield C. Zeena D. his farm E. social conventions F. his poverty G.
nature?
6. Why did Zeena and Ethan marry? What were the circumstances that brought
them together? What does Ethan feel about his marriage now?
7. Ethan always felt that he would like to live in a big city and Zeena never
wanted to settle on an isolated farm. So why did they never “break free”?
What kept them in Starkfield? How does this shed a new light on Zeena’s
nagging, complaining nature and her sickness?
8. What further personality traits are highlighted in Ethan when he delivers
lumber to Andrew Hale?
9. Ethan passes by the graveyard again on his way home from Andrew Hale’s
and this time he reads one of the headstones. What is ironic about the name
of the earlier Mrs. Ethan Frome? Why has Wharton put the graveyard in a
position that Ethan must pass going away from and returning home?
10. Wharton sets up a parallel scene when Ethan returns home from Andrew
Hale’s to find the door locked, only this time it is Mattie who is standing there
with a lamp. Discuss how the mood is different in this parallel scene.
11. On their night alone in the house, Ethan and Mattie are accompanied at
the table by the cat. Carefully read all references to the cat. What does it
symbolize? How does it function?
12. Zeena’s red pickle dish breaks at the end of chapter four. Look closely and
examine all details surrounding the pickle dish. For example, consider the fact
that it is red and what that color is typically representative of. Also, consider
the fact that it was a wedding gift never used by Zeena. What does the pickle
dish symbolize? Justify your response.
13. Explain the significance of the following: “he had never known such a
thrilling sense of mastery.”
Chapters 5 & 6 (Due_________________)(25 points)
1. On the night that Ethan and Mattie spend alone, if someone were peeking in
the window, he might think not much was happening. We, as the readers,
know on the contrary that things are changing in the Frome household. Make
an argument for what is changing and the gravity of such changes.
2. Even though Ethan has not even touched Mattie’s hand, much less kissed her,
the evening is so sublime for him. Why? Why did Ethan restrain himself on
this night? How has the evening without Zeena changed Ethan’s perception of
his daily routine?
3. Is Ethan a romantic or a realist? Provide evidence and support your ideas.
4. How has Wharton intensified the conflict in chapter 6? Include in your
discussion Wharton’s use of foreshadowing, minor characters, and other plot
devices.
Chapters 7 & 8 (Due______________) (50 points)
1. How does the emotional climate change when Zeena returns?
2. How does Ethan react when Zeena tells him that she has complications?
What decision did Zeena make that shocks Ethan?
3. How does Zeena say she lost her health?
4. Why does Zeena see no problem with hiring the new girl? Where is the
money going to come from in her mind? How does Ethan appeal to Zeena to
keep Mattie?
5. What are the two lies Zeena catches Ethan in?
6. What makes Zeena laugh?
7. When Ethan goes downstairs after Zeena’s news, where is the cat and why is
this significant?
8. What does Ethan do before he tells Mattie the bad news?
9. What is the first comment Zeena makes after finishing dinner?
10. What does Zeena go to the china cabinet looking for?
11. How does Ethan say the pickle dish broke? How does Zeena prove his
reason for breaking the pickle dish is a faulty one?
12. What is the pickle dish compared to when Zeena is carrying it out of the
room?
13. Where does Ethan take refuge the night Zeena comes home? Where does
he sleep? Describe the room Ethan’s mother had given him.
14. What did Mattie leave for Ethan on the kitchen table for him to find?
15. What physical object disrupts Ethan’s thoughts that he flings across the
room?
16. What is Ethan’s hopeful plan?
17. How does Ethan feel the next morning when the sun was out and it was
daylight?
18. How does Ethan respond to Jotham Powell when he says “Dan Byrne’s
going over to the flats and can take Mattie’s trunk along”? What is Ethan’s
reply?
19. What does Zeena refer to when she tells Mattie “they pine away when
they ain’t cared for”?
20. What stops Ethan from asking Hale for money?
Chapter 9 (Due___________) (25 points)
1. How is Zeena’s reaction to Mattie’s departure a contrast to Ethan’s?
2. What does his behavior imply about her actual health condition?
3. Comment on the irony of Ethan’s defiance of her command to stay home and
let Jotham drive Mattie to the station.
4. Why does suicide seem logical to Mattie and Ethan? Is this decision a solution
or a “cop out”?
Epilogue (Due----------)(25 points)
1. How is the reader surprised?
2. How does the narrator deal with the story now?
3. What is ironic about Mrs. Hale’s interpretations?
4. What are your final reactions and thoughts on this novel?