To begin with, through Ethan’s marriage to Zeena, we see the first way Ethan is a flawed man and how he is victimized. Ethan married Zeena because she had tried to help his mother recover from an illness, and once his mother died he could not bear the thought of living alone. His wife, Zeena, always seemed to have some kind of illness. The book states, “When she spoke it was only to complain,”(37). Ethan resented this because it stifled his dreams and admirations. Since Zeena was continually ill, and her cousin Mattie needed a place to stay, Ethan and Zeena took her in to help around the house. “He [Ethan] had taken to the girl [Mattie] from the first day”(16). He found someone that cared for him, was always happy and could share his youth, unlike his sickly wife who always nagged him. He longed to be with Mattie; however, he had loyalty to his wife. He did not have the courage to stand up to society and resolve the error that he committed by marrying Zeena.
Next, through Ethan’s inability to stand up to his wife, we see how Ethan is victimized. Zeena claimed that a new doctor said that she was extremely sick. For an excuse to get rid of Mattie, Zeena claimed that she needed more efficient help around the house. She told him without any discussion that Mattie had to go. Ethan could not find words to make her change her decision. It was stated in the book that his wife had the upper hand in the house by the line “Now she [Zeena] had mastered him [Ethan] and he abhorred her”(61). Ethan just could not find the right words to say and due to his inability to stand up to his wife, he was going to lose, Mattie, the only thing that made him happy.
Finally, through Ethan’s involvement in the “accident” with Mattie, we again see how Ethan is portrayed as a flawed man. He desperately wanted to run away with Mattie, but he could not because his practical sense told him it was not feasible to do so. Mattie wanted to be with Ethan so desperately, that she suggested they die together forever. It was Ethan’s job to steer the sled into the tree as Mattie says, ‘“So’t we’ll never come up anymore”’(85). Ethan did not steer into the tree just right and it did not kill either one of them. Instead it just injured them severely, and these injuries stayed with them forever. Instead of dying with his true love, he had to live with guilt from his wife, the injured Mattie, and his broken dreams.
In these three ways, of Ethan marrying the wrong person, his inability to stand up to his wife, and the injuries that come from the “accident”, indicates that Ethan was victimized and that he was a flawed man undone by his own circumstances. Everything Ethan tried to do worked against his favor because he never had the internal strength to follow his own conscience and push forward until he realized his dreams.
