ould have seemed more logical. However, the irrationality of Ethan's fate expresses Wharton's theme of the futility of trying to overcome social repressions. According to Wharton's point of view, people sometimes suffer simply because of the situations they were born into. Ethan Frome suffers because he is poor and unable to overcome the limitations of his rural society. Although the story is primarily told from Ethan's perspective, it is obvious that the characters Zeena and Mattie also suffer. In fact, Wharton was openly concerned with the oppression of women during her own time. In the words of Gilbert and Gubar, many of Wharton's books deal "in one way or another with the imprisonment of women" (Gilbert & Gubar 1169). The feminist critic Elizabeth Ammons has argued that Wharton was strongly concerned with this theme. According to Ammons, "Edith Wharton wasn't cruel to her female characters,... she was simply depicting with accuracy the lives of women in her time" (Joslin 137). In particular, Wharton depicted women with dreams and ambiti
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