Failure in Ethan Frome The main theme of the book Ethan Frome is failure. It is shown in three ways throughout the story: Ethan's marriage, him not being able to stand up to Zeena, and his involvement in the smash up. Ethan marries Zeena so he won't be alone after his mother dies. She seemed like a very cheerful, vivacious person while his mother was sick. After their marriage all this changed. She became a …showed first 75 words of 456 total…

…showed last 75 words of 456 total…either of them. Instead it injured them, and these injuries stayed with them forever. In this way, Ethan had his last failure in not exceeding to die with his love. Now he had to live with the guilt from his wife, the injured Mattie, and broken dreams. Everything Ethan tried to do worked against his favor. With all the incidents that happened it seemed inevitable that his life would always be a string of failure.