At School House Hill, Mattie reminds Ethan that he had promised to take her sledding down the slope again. The first time they went down was "once last winter;" since then, they had not gone down again.
Mattie reminds Ethan of his promise during their last moments together before he is supposed to take her to the train. Ethan's wife Zeena has demanded that Mattie be sent away, and Ethan can think of no way of avoiding the inevitable. On the way to the train station, Ethan and Mattie revisit the places they had enjoyed together during Mattie's time with the Fromes. Finally, the two end up on School House Hill, where they had seen an engaged couple from the village kissing, and where they had themselves taken an exhiliarating ride down the steep slope that one time so long ago.
Ethan and Mattie take a "splendid" ride down the hill on a borrowed...
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sled, and then trudge back up to the top. As they stand in an embrace at the crest of the hill,Ethan realizes that he can't let Mattie go, but he does not know what he can do about it. Mattie, however, provides a solution, one which is drastic and irrevocable. She persuades Ethan to crash into a dangerously placed elm on one last ride down the hill, so that in death, they need never be parted (Chapter 9).
In Ethan Frome, what did Mattie remind Ethan at School House Hill?
Mattie and Ethan, on the way to the train station for her departure from the town for good, happen to ride by the school house hill where people often went sledding. Ethan stops the sleigh in order for them to get a good view of the town below, and to postpone the sad and unwanted departure of his beloved Mattie. They are both miserable; they don't want to leave each other, but have to. While they are sitting there, Mattie turns to Ethan and says, "We were to have gone down last night," reminding him of the previous night and how they had planned to go down the hill together before Zeena had thwarted their plans.
This fateful reminder is what prompts Ethan to suggest that they have one last ride down the hill together. They get out and take the ride, afterwards sharing embraces and kisses of goodbye. That last ride put into Mattie's head the idea to go down the hill, crashing, hopefully dying, so that neither one of them would ever have to be apart from the other. She doesn't want to leave Ethan, and can't imagine life apart from him. In a moment of foolish drama, she makes the suggestion to Ethan, and that decides their fates for the rest of their lives.
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