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... er recurring pains any longer, and has resolved to set out for Bettsbridge on an overnight visit in order to see a new doctor. Ethan quickly agrees to Zeena's proposal that Jotham Powell, the hired man, drive her to the train station. He would drive her himself, he says, but he must collect a direct cash payment from Andrew Hale upon his delivery of a load of wood that afternoon. Ethan's excuse is a lie, since Hale is unlikely to pay up, but Ethan has no desire to go for a long ride with his wife. In chapter 4, as soon as Jotham and Zeena set out for Bettsbridge, Ethan departs to deliver the lumber load to Andrew Hale.
During his journey, he is consumed by thoughts of his return to Mattie, imagining their first night alone together. From his recount of these thoughts, the narrator segues smoothly into a description of the circumstances that surrounded Ethan's courtship of Zeena and their subsequent marriage. When Zeena came to help Ethan nurse his mother, her arrival made him feel less lonely. Fearing the return of his loneliness when his mother died, Ethan asked Zeena to marry him.
He had originally planned to sell the farm and move to a larger town, but the arrival of Zeena's illness soon rendered his dream impossible. Since he mentioned to Zeena that he would be receiving cash for the lumber load, Ethan decides to go ahead and ask Andrew Hale for a small direct payment. After unloading the lumber, Hale invites Ethan into his office, and Ethan requests an advance of fifty dollars. Hale politely refuses, citing his own financial constraints, and after a further exchange of civilities, Ethan leaves Hale to conduct some other business in the village.
With the afternoon drawing to a close, the street stands relatively empty. After an interval of solitude, a swiftly moving horse-drawn sleigh carrying Denis Eady passes Ethan and heads in the direction of the Frome farm. Ethan feels a fleeting pang of jealousy, which he quickly suppresses as unworthy of his affections for Mattie. Under the cover of the Varnum spruces, Ethan happens upon Ned Hale and Ruth Varnum, locked together in a clandestine embrace.
Realizing that they are being watched, the kissing couple quickly separates and departs. Ethan is left to pleasantly remember the scene, which, he notes, has taken place in the very spot where he and Mattie stood hesitating the previous night. Ethan makes the long climb back to the farm. When he arrives, he looks up to see a light issuing from Mattie's bedroom. He imagines her preparing herself for supper, and he thinks back to the evening of her arrival, when she had taken such care with her appearance. On his way to the house, Ethan passes a gravestone that he has often considered a curiosity.
It marks the resting place of one of his ancestors, also named Ethan Frome, as well as that of the ancestor's wife, who was named Endurance. They "dweller together in peace for fifty years, " the stone announces, and Ethan wonders if the same words will be written about him and Zeena. Arriving home, Ethan finds the door locked. Mattie opens it, in her usual dress but with a streak of crimson ribbon in her hair.
She has carefully set the supper table for Ethan with festive treats and colorful serving-dishes. After Ethan removes his outerwear, he returns to the kitchen, where Mattie has put the teakettle on the table. She playfully admits to entertaining Jotham Powell over a cup of coffee, which makes Ethan prickle slightly with jealousy. At supper, the cat jumps up onto the table, upsetting and breaking a pickle dish.
The accident drives Mattie to tears, because Zeena had forbidden her ever to use the dish, a favorite wedding present of Zeena's that came all the way from Philadelphia. Ethan confidently consoles her, balancing the fragments into a convincing whole high atop the closet, where it would be unlikely that Zeena could detect the breakage. Having averted the disaster, Ethan and Mattie settle back down at the table to finish their supper. In chapter 5, after supper, Mattie clears up while Ethan takes a last turn around the yard.
He returns to the kitchen to find Mattie busy at her sewing. Taking up his pipe, he sits down contentedly by the stove. When Ethan calls Mattie in to join him, she sits in Zeena's rocking chair, and Ethan suddenly imagines the specter of Zeena's face to have appeared in place of Mattie's features. Perhaps sensing her companion's unease and feeling uneasy herself, Mattie returns to her station in the kitchen. In time, Ethan and Mattie's disquiet begins to melt away, and they begin a carefree conversation about everyday matters including, once again, the possibility of going sledding on the next moonlit night.
However, when Ethan brings up his sighting of Ned and Ruth kissing among the spruces, Mattie suddenly becomes silent. Once again, Ethan and Mattie find themselves avoiding the subject that is on both of their minds their relationship. Ethan discusses Mattie's marriage prospects, and Mattie discusses Zeena's ill will toward her. Dismissing the subject of Zeena, they fall silent again, until Ethan boldly places his hand on the opposite end of the piece of cloth on which Mattie is working. Mattie, in recognition of this gesture, ceases her activity and waits. The stillness is interrupted by a clatter.
Behind Ethan and Mattie, the cat has leapt from Zeena's rocking chair in pursuit of a stray mouse. This sudden reminder of Zeena oppresses Ethan, and he impulsively picks up his end of Mattie's sewing work and kisses it gently. As he does so, the fabric slips from his hold, and he looks up to see Mattie putting away her sewing kit for the evening. The clock strikes eleven.
Mattie asks about the fire, and after straightening up the room, she lights a candle and blows out the lamp. As she prepares to climb the stairs, Ethan says goodnight to her, and she responds in kind. Ethan, hearing the door to her room pull shut, realizes that he has not even touched Mattie's hand during the course of the evening. Finally, I think the book is going to end with the mystery woman being Mattie, his wife.
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Research essay sample on Ethan And Mattie Rocking Chair
