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In the story Ethan Frome there are two women who play very important roles but are two totally different characters. Zeena is the wife of Ethan, and Mattie is the cousin of Zeena and who Ethan begins to fall for. In this essay there will be a contrast between physical and psychological differences between Mattie and Zeena and the dramatic changes in each of them after the “smash-up.” Zeena’s physical characteristics are shown as a young woman who has aged much faster than most women her age. “She (Zeena) sat opposite the window and the pale light reflected from the banks of snow made her face look more than usually drawn and bloodless, sharpened the three parallel creases between the ear and cheek, and drew querulous lines from her thin nose to the corners of her mouth. Though she was but seven years her husband’s senior, and he was only twenty-eight, she was already an old woman.” (pg 47). This shows that Zeena’s physical appearance has gone downhill and the attraction that Ethan once had for Zeena’s outer complexion does not exist anymore. She can only blame herself for diminishing her young beauty into elderly unpleasantness by believing her health was more drained than it really was, and being rude and o