The ride on the sled does not kill Ethan and Mattie, but rather renders them incapable of desire (or acting on it0, and even changes the dynamic of their relationship so significantly that desire can longer be a part of it. Conclusion

The idea that desire leads to destruction is not new. But it is refreshed in The Great Gatsby and Ethan Frome, where Fitzgerald and Wharton show desire not only leading to destruction, but having no intrinsic value of its own along the way. In these novels, desire is not actually the double-edged sword of pleasure and destruction that it is often seen to be. The allure of desire fools many characters into...

Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Bernard, Kenneth. "Imagery and Symbolism in Ethan Frome." College English 23(3) (1961), pp. 178-84.

Samuels, Charles. "The Greatness of Gatsby." Massachusetts Review 7(4) (1966), pp. 783-94.

Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. New York: Charles Scribner & Sons, 1922.

Will, Barbara. "The Great Gatsby and the Obscene Word." College Literature 32(4)(2005), pp. 125-44.