Why is Ethan Frome an intriguing character to write a story about?

Husband to Zeena, Ethan pursued studies in science and technology very briefly after high school, but his father's death and his mother's illness forced him back to the Frome farm. Poverty and responsibility have prevented him from leaving Starkfield. After his mother's death, he hastily married Zeena out of loneliness; she quickly became as sickly and silent as his mother had been. Ethan is stirred back to life by the arrival of Mattie Silver, Zeena's cousin. By the time the narrator meets Ethan, he is the "ruin of a man." Lame, grizzled, and bearing a tortured expression on his face, the old Frome fascinates the narrator, who sets out to learn his story. It is how Ethan's life unraveled that is interesting. He is truly a character of sad passion and repressed emotion. The is a quietness in Ethan yet there is so much going on behind this quietness. There is a man struggling to get out.