Ethan Frome Study Questions & Assignments
Literary Devices:
Frame Story
Flashback
Symbolism
Allusion
Setting
Themes
Character Development
Epilogue
1. What did the narrator have “bit by bit”?
2. Where does the story take place?
3. Who is known for driving up to the post office?
4. What mode of transportation did the answer to #3 use?
5. How does the narrator describe this man‟s outer appearance?
6. What was unique about his step?
7. How old is this man?
8. Why did the narrator “took him for an old man”?
9. Who is Harmon Gow?
10. What was Harmon‟s response to the narrator about Ethan?
11. What kind of mail did Frome receive?
12. What is the name of Frome‟s wife?
13. Why did Ethan remain in Starkfield?
14. What brings the narrator to Starkfield?
15. Identify the following literary term: “I began to understand why Starkfield emerged from
its six months‟ siege like a starved garrison capitulating without quarter.”
16. Who did the narrator lodge with in Starkfield?
17. What enabled Mrs. Ned Hale to judge her neighbors with detachment?
18. What does the narrator hope to get from her?
19. Identify the following literary term: “Her mind was a store-house of innocuous anecdote
and any question about her acquaintances brought forth a volume of detail.”
20. Who was the first person to see them after they got picked up?
21. Identify the following literary device: “Ruth Varnum was always as nervous as a rat.”
22. Where did the “smash-up” happen?
23. Who was Ruth engaged to at the time?
24. Who is Denis Eady?
25. What was Eady‟s agreement with the narrator?
26. What is Frome‟s economic status, according to Harmon?
27. Identify the following literary term: “The Frome farm was always „bout as bare as a
milkpan when the cat‟s around.”
28. What happened to Ethan‟s father and what did he do with the Frome money?
29. What is Zeena known for?
30. Identify the following literary term: “Sickness and trouble: that‟s what Ethan‟s had his
plate full up with, ever since the very first helping.”
31. What does Ethan agree to take a look at?
32. Identify the following literary term: “He was not the kind of man to be turned from his
business by any commotion of the elements; and at the appointed hour his sleigh glided
up through the snow like a stage-apparition behind thickening veils of gauze.”
33. How does the quote above characterize Ethan?
34. What is the “L”?
35. What was Frome‟s mother‟s illness?
36. After reading the Prologue, discuss the significance of the setting and its effect (as far as
you can tell) on Ethan.
Chapter 1
1. Identify the following literary device: “In a sky of iron the points of the Dipper hung like
icicles and Orion flashed his cold fires.”
2. What put a “premature end” to Ethan‟s studies?
3. What was the favorite coasting ground of Starkfield?
4. Who is Ethan watching through an outside window?
5. What object makes the person he is watching noticeable?
6. Who was the girl‟s dancing partner?
7. While discussing Ethan‟s observations of the girl and her partner, what is the narrator‟s
view of Ethan‟s thoughts?
8. Who is Mattie Silver and what is her role in the Frome household?
9. What did no moment in her company compare to for Ethan?
10. Identify the following literary device: “That‟s Orion down yonder; the big fellow to the
right is Aldebaran, and the bunch of little ones—like bees swarming—they‟re Pleiades.”
11. As of recent, what had Zeena grumbled increasingly about?
12. What did Mattie not take seriously?
13. What did Ethan do to help Mattie out?
14. Why does Zeena say Ethan is always late now?
15. What was all of Ethan‟s life lived in?
16. Identify the following literary term: “But now, as he stood outside the church, and saw
Mattie spinning down the floor with Denis Eady, a throng of disregarded hints and
menaces wove their cloud about his brain. . . .”
Chapter 2
1. Why is Ethan nervous and jealous at the beginning of Chapter 2?
2. Where does Denis Eady want to take Mattie?
3. What is Mattie‟s response?
4. Why is Mattie surprised to see Ethan?
5. Identify the following literary device: “Her wonder and his laughter ran together like
spring rills in a thaw.”
6. Ethan is searching for a “dazzling phrase.” What is his response instead? Why is that
response significant? (It is repeated several times throughout the novel as you read
on….)
7. Identify the following literary term: “She moved forward a step or two and then paused
again above the dip of the Corbury road. It‟s icy slope, scored by innumerable runners,
looked like a mirror scratched by travelers at an inn.”
8. What is coasting?
9. What does Ethan ask Mattie?
10. What happened to Ruth Varnum and Ned Hale?
11. What does Mattie think about what Zeena thinks of her?
12. What does Mattie tell Ethan that Zeena never does?
13. Identify the following literary term: “The iron heavens seemed to melt and rain down
sweetness.”
14. What “answer sent a pang through him but the tone suffused him with joy?”
15. What seemed to be written on every headstone?
16. What gave Ethan “a warm sense of continuance and stability?”
17. Who does Ethan think will lie beside him in death?
18. For the first time, what did Ethan do?
19. What was Zeena‟s habit when they came back late from the village?
20. What was missing?
21. What does Mattie think happened to the missing object?
22. Who opens the door?
23. What does Ethan say he is going to do downstairs?
24. What is the significance behind the following quote: “It is powerful cold down here.”
Chapter 3
1. Why was Ethan out early the next day?
2. When did Ethan do his clearest thinking?
3. What was Ethan‟s regret about when he was holding Mattie?
4. What was Mattie like when she first came to Starkfield?
5. How is Mattie related to Zeena?
6. Where is Mattie from?
7. Why was Mattie left on her own?
8. What was inadequate about Mattie‟s abilities? What jobs did she have?
9. Why did the family turn on Mattie?
10. What was “fault-finding” about Zeena?
11. Why did Ethan imagine his house was peaceful?
12. Who was the lumber supposed to be delivered to?
13. Who was the hired man?
14. What was Zeena wearing when Ethan came home?
15. Why is Zeena going to Bettsbridge?
16. Why did Ethan dread her departures?
17. Who does Zeena suggest could drive her over?
18. How old is Zeena?
19. How old is Ethan?
20. What did Ethan wonder if Mattie was thinking?
21. Why does Ethan say he cannot take her over to the Flats?
22. Why did he regret what he said?
Chapter 4
1. What does Ethan want to accomplish before night?
2. What does Ethan think he and Mattie will be like when he imagines them being alone
together indoors?
3. What did Ethan do as he drove along through the fields?
4. Identify the following literary device: “There was in him a slumbering spark of
sociability which the long Starkfield winters had not yet extinguished.”
5. Why did Ethan no longer have time for “convivial loiterings in the village?”
6. Who is Zenobia Pierce?
7. What did Ethan want to do once they were married?
8. Who “chose to look down on Starkfield?”
9. Where would Zeena have “suffered a complete loss of identity?”
10. What did Zeena develop within a year of their marriage?
11. What did Ethan observe about Zeena‟s skill as a nurse?
12. Why did Zeena fall silent?
13. When she did speak, what did she do?
14. Who does Ethan ask for an advance on his loan?
15. How much money was the advance?
16. What happened after Ethan‟s father‟s death?
17. What did the builder refuse?
18. What was Hale going to ask Ethan?
19. How long has Ethan been married to Zeena?
20. Why was Ethan jealous of Denis Eady?
21. Who does Ethan see kissing?
22. What does Ethan look at on his way home?
23. What startled Ethan?
24. What was in Mattie‟s hair?
25. What is at Mattie‟s feet?
26. What do Mattie and Ethan both reach for? What happens?
27. What did the cat break?
28. What is Mattie‟s response?
29. What is Ethan‟s response?
30. When did Zeena intend for the pickle dish to be used?
31. What does Ethan suggest he‟ll do to resolve the issue?
32. What does Mattie tell him about the pickle dish?
33. What does Mattie begin to do?
34. How does Ethan feel at the chapter‟s end?
Chapter 5
1. Where does Ethan want Mattie to sit?
2. What is Mattie‟s response once she is sitting there?
3. What is the cat doing?
4. What does Ethan remind Mattie of?
5. What does Ethan state about coasting down Corbury road?
6. Who does Ethan tell Mattie he saw?
7. What does Mattie ask Ethan about Zeena?
8. What did Ethan do to Mattie‟s sewing?
9. What does Ethan remember at the end of the chapter?
10. What does the cat symbolize?
11. What does the pickle dish symbolize?
Chapter 6
1. What had Ethan‟s evening with Mattie given him a vision of?
2. Who was going to meet Zeena at the Flats?
3. What did Ethan want to say when he was alone in the kitchen with Mattie?
4. What was Ethan hoping to hurry to the village for?
5. What happened that prohibited him to go to the village?
6. When Ethan finally gets to Michael Eady‟s, what does no one know what to find?
7. What was Ethan consumed with at this point?
8. Where to the Eadys recommend Ethan should go?
9. Who has arrived when Ethan comes home?
10. How did Zeena always act after a journey?
11. What does Jotham reject?
12. The first person Zeena meets after she‟s away for medical reasons is usually what?
Chapter 7
1. When Ethan asks Zeena to come to supper, what does she say?
2. What does she tell Ethan about her health?
3. What did almost everyone in the neighborhood have?
4. What did only the chosen have?
5. What does Zeena say every regular doctor would want her to have?
6. What could everybody see except Ethan, according to Zeena?
7. What does the doctor say she should get?
8. How are they going to get this person to come all the way to Starkfield?
9. What does Ethan think Zeena‟s expedition to Bettsbridge really was?
10. Who does Zeena blame her lost heath on?
11. Identify the following literary term: “Through the obscurity which hid there faces their
thoughts seemed to dart at each other like serpents shooting venom.”
12. What was this the first scene of between the couple?
13. What does Zeena say Ethan is neglecting already?
14. What does Zeena confront Ethan about not having?
15. After Zeena says, “There‟ll be Mattie‟s board less, anyhow—“ what does she do that
Ethan ever heard her do before?
16. What does Zeena call Mattie?
17. What does Ethan say will happen if Zeena sends Mattie out?
18. Identify the following literary term: “His wife‟s retort was like a knife-cut across the
sinews and he felt suddenly weak and powerless.”
19. What had Ethan meant to do?
20. What does Ethan realize he has no means to compel Zeena to do?
21. What does Ethan do once he and Mattie are alone?
22. What does Ethan tell Mattie she can‟t do?
23. What truth did Ethan and Mattie know?
24. Whose way does Ethan say he will have now?
25. What does Zeena state she is going to look for?
26. What does Zeena enter the room carrying?
27. When Zeena wants to know “who done this,” what does Ethan say?
28. Why did Mattie say she used the pickle dish?
29. What does Zeena call Mattie?
30. Identify the following literary term: “I tried to keep my things where you couldn‟t get at
„em—and now you‟ve took from me the one I cared for most of all—“ (Explain the
figurative meaning as well!)
31. Identify the following literary term: “‟If I‟d „a‟ listened to folks, you‟d „a‟ gone before
now, and this wouldn‟t „a‟ happened,‟ she said; and gathering up the bits of broken glass
she went out of the room as if she carried a dead body. . .”
Chapter 8
1. What did Ethan‟s mother give him when he was called back to the farm to tend to his
father‟s illness?
2. How had Ethan and Mattie stood after Zeena‟s departure from the kitchen scene?
3. In the second paragraph on page 85, what rhetorical device is Wharton employing?
4. What was the “case of a man over the mountain?”
5. What is Ethan thinking of doing the next day?
6. What is he planning to give to Zeena?
7. What does he realize he doesn‟t have to take Mattie west?
8. Identify the following literary term: “He was a prisoner for life, and now his one ray of
light was to be extinguished.”
9. What was Ethan suppose to take Mattie to do on this night?
10. When Ethan awoke, what does he say to himself?
11. What is the weather like when he awakes? How is this symbolic?
12. What did Zeena direct Jotham Powell to do?
13. What did Zeena have “an air of?”
14. What was Ethan thinking of asking Andrew Hale?
15. Who does Ethan encounter in the sleigh instead?
16. What does Mrs. Hale say she is sorry to hear?
17. How had Mrs. Hale spoken to Ethan? Why did he note this?
18. How was Ethan planning on taking advantage of the Hales?
Chapter 9
1. Who sat in his sleigh?
2. What was the title of the book Zeena was reading?
3. What extra information does the narrator provide about the book?
4. When Ethan finds Mattie in her room, what is she doing?
5. What is the first thing Mattie says to Ethan?
6. Who does Zeena want to drive Mattie?
7. What facial expression does Zeena make?
8. When Ethan tells Jotham he will drive Mattie, what is Zeena's response?
9. What does Zeena want Ethan to stay and do?
10. What is Ethan's response?
11. How long was it when Ethan drove over to bring home Mattie?
12. What did Zeena no do?
13. Where does Mattie ask Ethan if he is going?
14. Once they arrive, what do Mattie and Ethan reminisce about?
15. What things had Ethan "never learned to say?"
16. After Mattie responds that none of her father's family will help her, what does Ethan say?
17. What is written on the scrap of paper that Mattie reveals?
18. What does Mattie state that she used to think of?
19. How long ago was it since she began thinking of this?
20. Identify the following literary device: "I am tied hand and foot, Matt."
21. What does Ethan say he'd rather do than write Mattie?
22. Why does Ethan say, "I'd a'most rather have you dead than that?"
23. What question does Ethan ask Mattie at School House Hill?
24. Where do they find a sled?
25. What is Mattie concerned about once they get on the sled?
26. How does Ethan say he could go down this coast? What literary element may this be?
27. What does Ethan think Mattie is scared of once they return from the first coast?
28. What does Mattie do as she says "Good-bye--good-bye" to Ethan?
29. What does Mattie realized she missed?
30. What does Mattie order Ethan to do?
31. What does Mattie suggest they do?
32. Why does Ethan sit up front?
33. Identify the following literary device: "They sky was still thick, but looking straight up he
saw a single star, and tried vaguely to reckon whether it were Sirius, or--or--"
34. What does Ethan hear?
35. What did Ethan understand?
36. What is the thing that Ethan heard?
37. What happens to Ethan and Mattie at the chapter's end?
Chapter 10
1. Who does the narrator see when he enters Frome's kitchen?
2. Describe the woman who rises to greet the narrator.
3. Describe the second woman the narrator meets.
4. What is ironic about the following line: "My, it's cold here!?"
5. Who does Frome introduce?
6. Who had taken the narrator in for a night?
7. What is unique about the narrator's stay at Ethan's house, according to Mrs. Hale?
8. Why did Mrs. Hale stop visiting the Fromes?
9. What "just kills" Mrs. Hale?
10. What relation is Mattie to Mrs. Hale?
11. What does Mrs. Hale not know "to this day?"
12. Who cares for Mattie and Ethan?
13. How long has this person cared for them?
14. What has happened to Mattie's disposition after the accident?
15. How does Zeena act now?
16. Why would "Ethan's face'd break your heart?"
17. What did everyone think about a week after the accident?
18. Why is there not "much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down
in the graveyard?" What is this stating about the characters' fates?