Although Ethan wants to live in a city, he lives in Starkfield because Zeena won"t have it any other way. .

             Many times Ethan wants to be able to be free of Zeena"s control, but he is too passive to break loose. Not only does he not live where he wishes, but when true happiness comes into his life Ethan doesn"t take the chance to be blissful. He wants to be with Mattie, Zeena"s younger, energetic cousin who comes to the Frome house to help out. At one point, Ethan gets the courage to write a letter to Zeena telling her that he wants to leave her. After he thinks that "the inexorable facts closed in on him.There was no way out-none.He as a prisoner for life" his lack of bravery fails him from giving the letter to Zeena (134). Because Ethan is used to being controlled by his wife, he doesn"t have the audacity to take action to go against her and to do what he really desires to do; therefore, his soul is inflated with melancholy.

             Not only is Ethan not courageous, but he lives in his own world of silence. This silence is almost like a disease in the Frome house. First it starts with his mother and then it goes onto him and then Zeena catches this "disease". The total lack of communication between the "silent" couple is a significant factor in Ethan's miserable marriage. While Zeena complains about everything, Ethan takes in all the misery and decides not to give his opinion or speak his mind. Ethan keeps silent in his dealings with his wife, "to check a tendency to impatient retort he had first formed the habit of not answering her, and finally of thinking of other things while she talked" (72). When Zeena argues that Mattie is to leave because she hired another girl, Ethan at first tries to tell Zeena that he thinks that Mattie should be able to stay. He fails to stand up for Mattie and for what he truly feels, and yet again he is silent. "He meant to humble himself, to argue that Mattie"s keep didn"t cost much.