Q 01/05

In Ethan Frome, why do Ethan and Mattie Silver deliberately steer their sled into a tree?

A) To die together

B) To frighten Zeena

C) To win a wager

D) To miss her train

Answer · why

A) To die together

To die together is Mattie's idea: she begs Ethan to aim for the tree so the two of them need never part. Each of them lives on, and that is the real t...

Q 02/05

In Ethan Frome, which wedding gift, never once used by Zeena, does the cat knock off the supper table and break?

A) A milk jug

B) A pickle dish

C) A sugar bowl

D) A cut-glass vase

Answer · why

B) A pickle dish

A pickle dish was too precious for Zeena to use: it lived on the top shelf of the china closet and came down only for spring cleaning, until Mattie la...

Q 03/05

In Ethan Frome, Mattie Silver comes to live and work on the farm because she is which relation of Zeena's?

A) Her niece

B) Her stepdaughter

C) Her cousin

D) Her half-sister

Answer · why

C) Her cousin

Her cousin, or strictly her cousin's daughter, Mattie was orphaned at twenty, so the family sent her to keep house for Zeena without pay.

Q 04/05

Which fictional New England village, where a power-plant job strands the narrator, is the setting of Ethan Frome?

A) North Dormer

B) Grover's Corners

C) Peyton Place

D) Starkfield

Answer · why

D) Starkfield

Starkfield lives up to its name: one villager says Ethan has simply spent too many winters there, as though the place itself wore people down.

Q 05/05

In Ethan Frome, which kind of tree stands at the bottom of the sledding hill and ends the final run?

A) A spruce

B) An oak

C) An elm

D) A pine

Answer · why

C) An elm

An elm had already given the village a scare: an engaged couple nearly hit it on their sled, a near miss Mattie describes to Ethan early in the story.