Ethan Frome: Themes Themes are very significant to a story. A theme is a main idea of a story, poem, novel, or play that is usually expressed as a general statement about life. It can easily effect the way a person may think and view life. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton is a great example of this. One theme from the story is that you might not be able to obtain whatever you want in life. Ethan is very unhappy with the way is life is bound. He is very unhappy with his marriage, which was destined to be a failure in the first place. The only reason Ethan marries Zenna is that she had come to take care of his sick