Chapter V Practice Quiz — Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter V
What domestic scene does Ethan find when he returns to the kitchen after tending the cows?
Mattie has pushed his chair to the stove and seated herself near the lamp with her sewing, creating the exact scene Ethan had imagined that morning.
What happens when Mattie sits in Zeena's rocking chair?
Ethan experiences a momentary shock, seeing Zeena's gaunt face superimposed over Mattie's. Mattie senses the same unease and moves back to her chair by the lamp.
What does Ethan tell Mattie he saw under the Varnum spruces?
He tells her he saw "a friend of yours getting kissed" — referring to Ruth Varnum and Ned Hale.
What does Ethan do instead of touching Mattie's hand at the table?
He slides his hand along the table to touch the strip of fabric she is hemming, then bends and kisses the cloth.
What causes the empty rocking chair to start swaying?
The cat jumps from Zeena's chair to chase a mouse in the wainscot, and its sudden movement sets the empty chair rocking.
What does Ethan realize after Mattie's door closes at the end of the chapter?
He realizes that he had not even touched her hand during the entire evening together.
How does Ethan feel about the evening with Mattie by the stove?
He feels lazy and light of mood, with a confused sense of being in another world where all is warmth and harmony and time could bring no change.
What fear does Mattie reveal to Ethan for the first time?
She asks whether Zeena has "anything against" her, revealing her anxiety about her precarious position in the Frome household.
Why does Ethan say "It'll be your turn next" about marriage to Mattie?
He claims he says it "to get used to the idea," revealing his dread that Mattie will eventually leave and marry someone else.
Why can't Ethan bring himself to touch Mattie inside the house?
The warm lamplit room carries "ancient implications of conformity and order" that make Mattie seem infinitely farther away and more unapproachable than she had outdoors.
How does the kitchen setting reinforce the theme of entrapment?
The domestic space, filled with Zeena's belongings and household routines, enforces social norms that prevent Ethan from acting on his desires even when his wife is physically absent.
What illusion does the ordinary conversation create for Ethan?
The commonplace nature of their talk produces an illusion of long-established intimacy, as if they had always spent evenings together and always would.
How does Chapter V illustrate the theme of silence and inarticulacy?
Ethan's strongest emotions find no words. His most expressive act is kissing a strip of sewing fabric, and the chapter ends with the realization he never even touched Mattie.
What is ironic about Ethan's sense of "protection and authority" when discussing the Corbury road?
He takes pleasure in warning Mattie about the dangerous elm, but this same tree will be the target of their catastrophic sled crash at the novel's climax.
What does Zeena's rocking chair symbolize in Chapter V?
It symbolizes Zeena's inescapable presence and authority in the household. Even empty, it asserts her claim over the domestic space.
What role does the cat play as a literary device?
The cat acts as Zeena's surrogate, occupying her chair and watching the couple with narrowed eyes. Its leap causes the spectral rocking that shatters Ethan's fantasy.
Identify the foreshadowing in Ethan's description of the Corbury road.
His warning about the "ugly corner down by the big elm" and how a rider could go "plumb into it" directly foreshadows the climactic sledding accident.
What simile does Wharton use to describe how Mattie's face changes during conversation?
Ethan marvels at "the way her face changed with each turn of their talk, like a wheat-field under a summer breeze."
What does "indolent" mean as used in Chapter V?
Lazy or disinclined to exert oneself. Ethan is "too indolent to move" from his comfortable position by the stove.
What is a "wainscot" where the cat chases the mouse?
Wooden paneling on the lower part of interior walls, common in older New England houses.
What does "spectral" mean in "spectral rocking"?
Ghostlike or resembling a specter. The empty chair rocks as if occupied by Zeena's phantom presence.
Who says: "I ain't any more scared than you are!" and in what context?
Mattie says this when Ethan asks if she would be scared to go down the Corbury road on a dark night, showing her spirited nature.
What does Ethan think when the empty rocking chair begins to sway?
"She'll be rocking in it herself this time to-morrow. I've been in a dream, and this is the only evening we'll ever have together."
What is the final line of Chapter V?
"When the door of her room had closed on her he remembered that he had not even touched her hand."