The Fox is homophobic, misogynist nonsense. SPOILER
Who exactly is Ellen March? Is she a lesbian at the beginning of the story? Two women sharing a bed would be reason enough for some to think so.
Ellen and Jill seem to have a distant husband wife relationship, Ellen taking the male role. But if she loves Jill why does she want to marry Paul? Also, why would she want to leave the independence of her life on the farm to spend it with a man as controlling as Paul? Is the message we are supposed to get that she needs to be tamed and only a real man like Paul can do it?
A clue could be when he approaches Jill, rejecting her bribe to leave, and tells her she needs the right man to straighten her out. Ellen isn't there when this happens. So, we might logically think that Paul might not make a faithful husband.
Then Ellen descends the stairs in a pink dress, appearing far more feminine than she ever had before. The new look is to satisfy Paul. The only scenes of intimacy are when Paul and Ellen are in the cabin and between Jill and Ellen on the bed. The one between Paul and Ellen shows them nude, which means it's the serious one. Jill, conforming to the stereotype, is shown running, and crying and shouting while searching for Ellen, frustratrated and hysterical. When she is on her bed, lonely and depressed, the confusing Ellen has a kissing scene with her. It's to mollify Jill after telling her that she loves Paul.
But their clothes stay on them. It was just a schoolgirl crush that Ellen has on her we are told to think. Before Paul enters their lives, Ellen is shown standing before a mirror, naked and obviously starved for sex, ripe for a man to do it.
Both of these love scenes show Jill as the stereotypical movie lesbian.
But Jill's ridiculous death by standing in the path of the falling tree is like other films where homosexuals are conveniently killed off. She can't possibly have a happy life if she can only love women. It's like killing a lame horse to put it out of it's misery. This is true even in a movie that was made in the seemingly liberated sixties, after the Production Code had ended.
Paul won't make the humane choice and refuse to cut down the tree if Jill won't move. Nothing can come between him and Ellen. Jill commits suicide because she knows that because Paul has returned she can never have the vacillating Ellen to herself. If the film had to end this way, why couldn't Jill and Ellen be shown having a thoughtful discussion about Ellen's feelings for Paul before Jill departs from them? But that would be boring. A suicide saves time as well as being what the screenwriters think a lesbian deserves.
There is one piece of dialogue that would indicate that we should still feel some sympathy for Jill. After all, she did make the supreme sacrifice for Ellen's supposed happiness. As Ellen and Paul are leaving, she looks back and says that the house needs shingles. A part of her will always be back on the farm with Jill. We are asked to think isn't that sweet?