Ethan Frome is the novel’s titular character and protagonist. At the time the main narrative takes place, he is 28 years old with fair hair and a tall, powerful build. Although he ekes out his living working the family farm and sawmill, Ethan is intellectually curious by nature and had hoped to become an engineer before family circumstances cut his education short. These ambitions, combined with his introspectiveness and sensitivity, make Ethan a misfit in his native Starkfield, which is provincial in character and outlook. They also account for much of Ethan’s unhappiness in his marriage, which requires him to constantly anticipate the desires of a wife who is either unwilling or unable to reciprocate.

By contrast, Ethan feels that in Mattie he’s found the “sweetness of […] communion” with a kindred spirit (23). Mattie’s youth and deference also bolster his self-esteem; in direct contradiction to the era’s gender norms, Ethan has spent his entire marriage bowing to his wife and consequently feels emasculated. However, Ethan’s sense of social obligation ultimately proves more powerful than his desire for Mattie; having already considered and rejected eloping, Ethan botches their planned suicide because he’s thinking about Zeena.