Once again we witness the recurrence of the theme of physical surroundings
as destiny. Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie all have become trapped—by
snow and poverty and their disabilities—in the decaying farmhouse,
and they will be trapped there forever, as Mrs. Hale’s closing words
remind us: they will join the other Fromes in the graveyard, alongside
the headstone of the earlier Ethan Frome and his wife, Endurance.
And indeed, for Ethan himself, endurance is all that remains: his
attempt at rebellion and escape has failed, and he ends where he
began, trapped by illness, poverty, and winter in Starkfield, waiting
for death.
