Wharton once again shifts the point of view to the first person; The Narrator resumes the story about Ethan Frome that he began in the prologue more than twenty years after the tragedy experienced by Ethan and Mattie. The epilogue is a denouement, or conclusion to the plot of the main story and the frame story as well.
Wharton provides the final touch of irony when she reveals that the "querulous drone" heard by The Narrator comes from Mattie and not Zeena. Mattie has lost her sweet temperament and can be mistaken for Zeena. Zeena never changed from her sickliness, but she has put aside her imagined illnesses and her overdeveloped sense of self-pity to care for the two invalids.
Ethan, the most introspective and sensitive of the characters, has suffered a life in death after the smash-up. The repeated graveyard image is ironic because Ethan had twice speculated about his life in connection with the Frome graveyard. The first time he imagined himself living out his years with Mattie, the second time of enduring his life with Zeena. He did not suspect his fate was to be a nightmarish combination of the two daydreams.
The prologue emphasizes the themes of silence, isolation, and entrapment that Ethan has accepted as his fate because he was unable to violate the rules of society. Ethan did not choose to stand up to Zeena, divorce her, or run away with Mattie. He stood by his marriage vows, right or wrong, and as a result, will live out his life in silence and isolation.
