Wharton creates suspense as the couple arrives at the sledding hill and decide to go sledding. After the first ride, Ethan asks Mattie if she was scared of running into the elm tree. The idea of fear signals the mounting pressure of the death wish building in the two lovers. It also foreshadows the accident. As the conversation about fear and the thrilling exaltation of the sled ride have passed, silence, darkness, and cold are emphasized as the couple climbs up the hill. Ethan thinks this will be their last walk together. His thoughts foreshadow not only the coming accident, but also Mattie’s future as a cripple.
As the idea of a mutual death gains momentum, Ethan is caught in a frenzy of love for Mattie that blots out his former conscientious thoughts of not leaving Zeena to fend for herself. Ethan is overwhelmed by the knowledge that Mattie loves him. Only the touch of Mattie’s cold cheek and the whistle of the approaching train bring him out of his vision.
The idea of mutual suicide is now identified in Ethan’s mind as a sort of quest to preserve the love and beauty of his relationship with Mattie. Passion, not reason, dominates his mind; appropriately, the darkness has increased and his usually sharp vision is dimmed, just as his rational faculties are dimmed in the obscurity of passion.
As they coast downhill, the last thing Ethan sees before the tree is a vision of his wife’s face, a manifestation of his conception of her as an alien presence. It seems to try to prevent him from attaining the goal of the tree, but he maneuvers around it. The vision is a symbolic reminder that Ethan will never escape Zeena’s dominance, and that he will fail tragically in his attempt to carry away in death the beauty and love he found with Mattie.
After the crash into the tree, Wharton describes what Ethan sees and feels; he had wondered briefly what it would be like after death but now he slowly realizes he is still alive. Mattie’s beauty has turned into the twisted, ugly reality that Ethan will have to bear for the rest of his life.
The accident results in the destruction of two lives. Wharton does not tell readers that the attempt at death has failed and that Ethan and Mattie are condemned to live out their crippled lives in Starkfield. Instead, readers can sense with Ethan the quiet acceptance of his fate when he thinks that it is time to feed his horse. For Ethan, there is no escape from the silence, isolation, and entrapment.
