This forced him to choose between love and responsibility, even though he knew he wouldn't be satisfied no matter what he chose. Choosing responsibility would mean condemning yourself to a life of darkness and winter cold. Choosing love would mean going against his morals by abandoning his wife and leaving her with the burden of their troubled land. There was no option that could leave Ethan fully satisfied. In a twisted way Ethan found some sort of middle ground between love and responsibility, but it made his love bitter and left him an empty shell trapped between the woman he felt obligated to be with and the woman he hoped to love. A quote early in the book connects the metaphor and theme by saying, “He seemed a part of the silent melancholy landscape, an embodiment of its frozen sorrow.” This is a powerful quote because what Ethan is going through is so strongly represented by the frozen landscape. He is loveless and is trapped in an endless cold winter of darkness and misery brought upon him by the choice between love and