Plot in Ethan Frome

Recall that Ethan planted the geraniums in order to “make a garden for Mattie” and that we can consider the garden as symbolic of the Garden of Eden. After Ethan notes the smell of the geraniums in the room, “all constraint vanished” between Ethan and Mattie. Their conversation flows more easily after the geraniums are mentioned, and they both feel a sense of ease.

Ethan has been concerned with money since his wife mentioned the possibility of surgery. Ethan stated earlier that he was thankful, due to “motives of economy,” that Zeena dismissed the idea of medical operations because she believed them to be “indelicate.” Here, Ethan is still extremely concerned about finances, but we get the overwhelming sense that he resents Zeena for the potential expense. Ethan “no longer believed what Zeena had told him of the supposed seriousness of her state” but instead “saw it as a plot” to “foist on him the cost of a servant” that could aid Zeena in her sickness.

Ethan suggests that Zeena started using the term “complications” to describe the extent of her sickliness from the medical advice she was given. Until this point, Zeena has been told that she has “troubles” rather than “complications,” which Ethan explains is not a step in the right direction. He says that when a doctor tells someone that they have “complications,” it is a basically a “death-warrant.” This wording is ultimately what drives Ethan to believe that Zeena is not exaggerating about her bad health anymore.