The main character, Ethan, starts to like someone else, despite him already being married. Although he starts to have such thoughts, his intentions are understandable considering that he was never in love with his wife, Zeena. In Edith Wharton 's Ethan Frome, Ethan doesn 't come out as an admirable person because he can 't face his problems, and he always tries to run away from them. Ethan has never faced the problems between him and Zeena, and neither has he ever confronted his feelings to Mattie. Ethan doesn 't understand that running away from problems isn 't going to make them disappear. He would never talk to Zeena about the problems that they have. It 's apparent that Zeena and Ethan don 't love each other. Their conversations are as minimal as they can get, and they 're both cold around each other. Their relationship is on the edge of breaking apart, and one accurate step would 've helped him be free from this burden. He also easily lets Zeena guilt him in into his sickness. If he would 've talked to Zeena about how he felt, it might 've hurt her at the time, but later it would 've been good for both of them. He has never had enough courage to confront Mattie about …show more content…
Him deciding to sled into the elm tree with Mattie is him running away from his problems again. He didn 't want to face the result of Mattie leaving. The thing that he didn 't understand is that attempting to die is no solution. Suicide is a long-term solution to a short-term problem. He didn 't want to live a life without Mattie in it. He didn 't have enough money to run away with Mattie, but he could 've waited until he had enough and then go to Mattie. Instead, he decides to not think the situation through, and to just run from all the problems like he always has. This attempt puts them in a worse place than before. This event made Mattie paralyzed, and he had to end up living with two bitter women. Any decision that he would 've made other than what he did would 've improved