伊迪丝•华顿是19世纪末20世纪初美国最杰出的小说家之一。《伊坦•弗洛美》（1911）是华顿最著名的中篇小说，被誉为美国文学中的《呼啸山庄》。小说中华顿将故事的背景从她所熟悉的奢华的上流社会搬至偏远贫穷的新英格兰小镇斯塔克菲尔，第一次直接地描写了陷于贫瘠荒芜的乡村中弗洛美、细娜和玛提三个主人公的生活及他们复杂的感情世界，理想和现实之间的巨大差距酿成了三个人的爱情和生活的双重悲剧。本文试图从细娜的药品入手，结合小镇偏远贫瘠的自然环境和质朴守旧的人文环境，推得细娜对药品的关注是她无法实现的生活和爱情理想的一种寄托，是斯塔克菲尔生活模式中的不和谐成分，是理想和现实的差距存在的具体体现。小说真实地阐述了人生挫折与绝望，表达了作者对陷入绝境之中的人们无奈挣扎地同情。

Edith Wharton was one of the American famous writers at the turn of the 20th century. Ethan Frome (1911), her best novelette, is regarded as American Wuthering Heights. The background of Ethan Frome is moved to the remote and poor country- Starkfield from the luxurious high society, which Wharton is quite familiar with. It is the first time that Wharton described love and life among Ethan Frome, Zeena and Mattie who are trapped in the barren country. The contradiction of dream and reality in the fiction leads to the great miserable end of three characters’ love and lives. This paper focuses on Zeena’s medicine based on poor nature and inanimate culture of Starkfield. It concludes that medicine symbolizes Zeena’s dream, and is inconsistent with the wintery and undeveloped rural life. The inconsistency of Zeena’s medicine and rural life causes directly the tragedy. Ethan Frome tells that the setbacks and despairs defeat the life, and Wharton sympathizes with people whose struggle with adversity is fruitless.