Ethan Frome
The novel is framed by the literary device of an extended flashback. The prologue opens with an unnamed male narrator spending a winter in Starkfield, a fictional town in New England, while in the area on business. He spots a limping, quiet man around the village, who is somehow compelling in his demeanor and carriage. Curious, the narrator sets out to learn about him. He learns that Frome's limp arose from having been injured in a "smash-up" twenty-four years before, but further details are not forthcoming.
Chance circumstances arise that allow the narrator to hire Frome as his driver for a week. A severe snowstorm during one of their journeys forces Frome to allow the narrator to shelter at his home one night. Just as the two are entering Frome's house, the prologue ends. We then embark on the "first" chapter (Chapter I), which takes place twenty-four years prior. The narration switches from the first-person narrator of the prologue to a limited third-person narrator.
In Chapter I, Ethan is waiting outside a church dance to walk home Mattie, his wife’s cousin, who has for a year lived with Ethan and his sickly wife, Zeena (Zenobia), in order to help out around the house and farm. It is quickly clear that Ethan has feelings for Mattie. It also becomes clear that Zeena has observed enough to understand that he has these feelings and resents them.
When Zeena leaves for an overnight visit to a doctor in a neighboring town, Ethan is excited to have an evening alone with Mattie. Mattie makes supper using Zeena's treasured pickle dish which she received as a wedding present. Unfortunately, the Frome's cat jumps on the table and knocks off the pickle dish, shattering it beyond repair. Ethan decides to hide the damage until he is able to purchase glue by setting the dish's pieces neatly in the cupboard.
In the morning, Ethan goes into town to buy glue for the broken pickle dish and, upon his return, finds that Zeena has already come home. Zeena informs Ethan that the doctor told her she needed to do as little work as possible and that she has already hired another girl to replace Mattie, who will be forced to leave.
Ethan is angry and frustrated by the thought of losing Mattie and accidentally tells Mattie of Zeena’s plans to send her away. Mattie reacts with shock but rapid acceptance, trying to calm Ethan, while Ethan becomes more agitated and begins to insist that he will not let her go. Ethan kisses her. Moments later, they are interrupted by Zeena.
After supper, Zeena discovers the broken pickle dish and is enraged. Ethan, miserable at the thought of losing Mattie, considers running away with Mattie, but he lacks the money to do so.
The next morning, Zeena describes her imminent plans for sending Mattie away. Panicked, Ethan rushes into town to try to get a cash advance from a customer for a load of lumber in order to have the money with which to run away with Mattie. He changes his mind after the customer’s wife expresses compassion for his lot and he realizes that he cannot lie to this kindly woman and her husband.
Ethan returns to the farm and picks up Mattie to take her to the train station. They stop at a hill upon which they had once planned to go sledding and decide to sled together as a way of delaying their sad parting. After their first run, Mattie suggests a suicide pact: that they go down again, and steer the sled directly into a tree, so they will never be parted and so that they may spend their last moments together. At first, Ethan refuses the plan, but, in his despair, he ultimately agrees. On the way down the hill, a vision of Zeena's face startles Ethan into swerving a bit, but he corrects their course, and they crash into the elm tree. Ethan regains consciousness after the accident, but Mattie lies beside him "cheeping" in pain like a small wounded animal. Ethan is also injured, and the reader is left to understand that this was the "smash-up" that left Ethan with a permanent limp.
The final chapter (or epilogue) switches back to the first-person narrator point of view of the prologue, as Frome and his visitor, the narrator, enter the Frome household two decades later. The narrator hears a complaining female voice which turns out to be Mattie, who now lives with the Fromes due to having been paralyzed in the accident. Zeena is now forced to care for her as well as Ethan. Ironically, Ethan and Mattie have gotten their wish to stay together, but in mutual discontent instead of happiness.
romantic, flashback