Ethan Frome - Irony

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over Mattie’s departure changes their motives concerning sledding. They see a collision with the elm as a way to avoid parting. Mattie suggests, "Right into the big elm…So ‘t we’d never have to leave each other any more" (71). The irony is that sledding, an innocent pastime, becomes a tool the lovers use to try to escape their situation.
Another ironic element of the sledding ride is the appearance of Zeena’s face, Ethan’s wife, during the scene. Ethan and Mattie are speeding down the hill towards the elm to what they believe will be their deaths. In one of the last instants before they reach the tree, Zeena’s face appears to Ethan. "But suddenly his wife’s face, with twisted monstrous lineaments, thrust itself between him and his goal, and he made an instinctive movement to brush it aside" (72). Ethan seems not to have thought about the effects his death would have on his wife, but this sudden image of his wife suggests that he feels guilty. It is ...

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