"There was one day, about a week after the accident, when they all thought Mattie couldn't live. Well, I say it's a pity she did. I said it right out to our minister once, and he was shocked at me. Only he wasn't with me that morning when she first came to... And I say, if she'd ha' died, Ethan might ha' lived; and the way they are now, I don't see's there's much difference between the Fromes up at the farm and the Fromes down in the graveyard; 'cept that down there they're all quiet, and the women have got to hold their tongues."
The final passage of the novel is important because Mrs. Hale discusses the state of the Frome household after the sledding disaster. Ethan is trapped with Zeena, death, and another image of a cripple, Mattie, like her wife.The passage reveals an allusion to the detailed description of the stone and Ethan's reaction. All that Ethan was missing was endurance, now that his attempt at rebellion had failed. Mrs. Hale talks as if Ethan died because Ethan has ended in a worse fate than he would have been dead. Ethan is experiencing death in life, with two monsters. The difference Mrs. Hale is talking about is that the Frome's in the graveyard are in peace resting, but the Frome up there, Ethan is in living death, with his tragic fate with Zeena and Mattie living together as he is tormented by seeing them as long as he lives or they live.
