“My Cousin Is Cheating On Me with My Maid” is something that you would expect to see at the beginning of “The Jerry Springer Show,” not in early American literature. But as I have seen in the movie “Ethan Frome,” it is possible for this situation to occur in colonial America. The main characters, Ethan, Zena, and Mattie, each have major character flaws, but in this essay, I will focus on Ethan.
Ethan returns to his hometown to spend time with his dying mother. He sends for his distant cousin, Zena, to care for his mother. After Ethan’s mom dies, he needs someone to take care of him so he marries Zena. This is the first of Ethan’s character flaw I have observed, he cannot take care of himself.
A second flaw of Ethan’s that I have observed is that he is adulterous. This is demonstrated when he cheated on Zena with her cousin while Zena was away at the doctors. This is when all the trouble began. Zena found out about it and tried to push Mattie out of the house.
Another flaw that Ethan shows in immaturity. This is demonstrated when he is trying to convince Mattie to run away with him to Florida. He tries to run away from his problems instead of facing them.
A fourth flaw is reveled when Ethan and Mattie are sledding down the hill. Mattie says that she never wanted to leave the hiss, so together they slid down the hill and into a tree, trying to commit suicide. In my opinion, this was rather stupid when they had a bottle full of poison in the barn.
In this paper I have demonstrated four character flaws of Ethan Frome. There in include being weak willed, adulterous, immature, and suicidal. This movie definitely belongs in the “Jerry Springer” archives.