By name alone, Starkfield already lets us know what kind of town the story is going to set in; a foreshadowing of the town itself and its inhabitants. A bare town that does not have much in the way of entertainment, and one that makes it difficult for its population to prosper. Early in the story, Harmon Gow—who despite having a small role in the whole of the story—sets a frame for the reader by remarking that “[m]ost of the smart ones get away” (Wharton). Those that do not leave seem to become as dull and bare as the town itself, and example of this is our main character Ethan Frome, who for all intents and purposes was regarded as smart fellow, yet was unable to leave this bleak town.
Yet what is it that makes this town so dreary and isolating?
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Starting with Ethan’s parents, we see that his father died after working on a farm that was no longer supporting their family. His mother, after his father’s death, succumbed to an indescribable depression, as demonstrated by the fact that his “mother never could get it through her head what had happened, and it preyed on her right along till she died” (Wharton), referring to the fact that barely anyone passed by the road to their farm and how during the last moments of her life she barely spoke. This also reaches over to Zenobia and how she became closed off and distant after her marriage with Ethan and later her move into the farm. Both Zenobia and Ethan’s mother changed something that Ethan himself thought about, for example “[h]e recalled his mother’s growing taciturnity, and wondered if Zeena were also turning “queer.” Women did, he knew. Zeena… had cited many cases of the kind while she was nursing his mother; and he himself knew of certain lonely farm-houses in the neighbourhood where stricken creatures pined, and of others where sudden tragedy had come of their presence” (Wharton). It seems that the isolation in this small town was not limited to just our three main characters, but that it reached the rest of the town and various people around were being affected by some connecting force that the reader pieces together. The isolation in the farm and the inability to leave it, is mirrored by the isolation of the winter and the inability to leave the