The events of the night before are paralleled in order to draw attention in a dramatic and climactic moment to the difference between Zeena and Mattie. When Mattie lets Ethan in the locked back door, standing in the same pose that Zeena did the night before, Ethan is struck by the immense difference between the young, warm, and feminine Mattie and his old, cold, and hard wife Zeena.
Wharton structures the events in this way to allow Mattie to demonstrate her feelings for Ethan without oral communication. Mattie shows Ethan how special he is to her by adding a red ribbon to her hair, laughing, and preparing Ethan’s favorite foods.
During the meal, Ethan and Mattie are uncomfortable mentioning Zeena’s name. Wharton uses the cat as a stand-in for Zeena. Mattie almost trips over the cat, the cat sits in Zeena’s chair during the meal, the cat causes the pickle dish to be broken and sits in Zeena’s chair near the fire.
Breaking the pickle dish is a climactic event in the novel. Mattie uses the pickle dish, one of Zeena’s most cherished wedding presents, for one of Ethan’s favorite foods and to set a special table for Ethan. Using the pickle dish is a trespass against Zeena. Neither Ethan nor Mattie want to acknowledge the trespass to Zeena, and to cover up their guilt, Ethan becomes assertive. He deliberately intends to deceive Zeena by gluing the dish back together in order to protect Mattie. This act enables Ethan to feel a sense of masculine dominance, a feeling he has never experienced with Zeena.
After the meal, Ethan and Mattie communicate easily with each other, enjoying the companionship of the other. Ethan allows himself to imagine that Mattie is his wife and this particular night is typical for them. He talks of going coasting and enjoys the sense of masculine superiority by trying to make Mattie admit she would be afraid. They talk again about sledding, the reference to coasting foreshadowing their smash-up. Ethan and Mattie also talk about Zeena and the fact that she is dissatisfied with Mattie’s abilities to perform the household chores. They both agree that Zeena is unpredictable. Wharton foreshadows Zeena’s decision to fire Mattie and get a new girl to do the housework.
Wharton associates the imagery of warmth, summer, and natural life with Mattie: her face seems “like a wheat field under a summer breeze”; her pronunciation of the word “married” seems to invoke “a rustling covert leading to enchanted glades”; and the action of her hands over her sewing resembles birds building their nests.
After being startled once again by the cat jumping out of Zeena’s rocker, Ethan realizes that the evening has been much like a dream. He and Mattie have done their best to avoid reality and Ethan feels weary and defeated. Ethan kisses the material that Mattie is sewing as a gesture of the intimacy of the evening. They go off to bed, realizing that they each have feelings for the other. It is the first moment that Ethan and Mattie convey their true feelings to one another.
