Setting:
“The village lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners. In a sky of iron the points of the Dipper hung like icicles and Orion flashed his cold fires. The moon had set, but the night was so transparent that the white house-fronts between the elms looked gray against the snow, clumps of bushes made black stains on it, and the basement windows of the church sent shafts of yellow light far across the endless undulations.” (9).

The story takes place over twenty-four years in a meager town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, Ethan Frome’s hometown. Majority of the story takes place during the bleak couple of days of February at his house, due to the fact that his wife is ill therefore she tends to stay indoors. Although …show more content…
Then he opened the door. ‘Come in,’ he said; and as he spoke the droning voice grew still… It was that night that I found the clue to Ethan Frome, and began to put together this vision of his story.” (9).
The point of view in this novel is unique because it switches between first person and third person throughout the novel. During the prologue and epilogue of this novel, the perspective of the narrator is in first person. Considering that the narrator is in Starkfield, interacting and expressing opinions about the tragedy with the townspeople, including Ethan Frome in the beginning and the end of the novel, those sections of the novel are narrated in first person perspective. However, the rest of the novel is told in third person omniscience due to the fact that the tragedy occurred twenty-four years ago, when the narrator was away from Starkfield, therefore it would have been impossible for the narrator to tell the story in the perspective of first person. The alternation in perspective of the narrator is vital to the story because it logically makes sense, and it helps clarify the transition in time and place that this story takes