Ann and John, two characters from he short story "The Painted Door", do not have a very healthy relationship. John is a simple farmer who thinks the only way he can please his wife, Ann, is by working all day to earn money for her. However Ann would prefer him to spend more time with her. Their relationship is stressed even further when Ann is left at home alone with nothing to think about but their relationship because John has to go to his father’s house. The terrible snowstorm accentuates Ann’s feelings of loneliness and despair. John does not pay enough attention to Ann, and therefore creates a weak relationship.
Ann is justified in her decision to "sleeps" with Steven, John’s friend. John has not been paying much attention to Ann and he leaves her alone in their house with Steven. Ann also has prior feelings for Steven from when they where in school together. Ann felt that she is unimportant to John because he frequently leaves her alone; she states, "It isn't right to leave me here alone. Surely I'm as important as your father." Ann just wants to feel loved by John but because he doesn't make her feel loved. She sees Steven as the only person who can give her the love and affection she needs.
John's decision to commit suicide was the right thing to do to make Ann happy. John thought that killing himself would make it easier for her to stay with Steven, who he thinks that she loves. John made a decision about his own life so he has the right to choose to kill himself. He also just wants Ann to be happy. He is "naively proud of Ann. He had bewildered by it once, her caring for a dull-witted fellow like him: then assured al last of her affection he had relaxed against it gratefully, unsuspecting it might ever be less constant than his own." (Pg.49) In John's mind he was making the right decision, so he was free to make it.
Ann is the most to blame for her depression, her affair with Steven, and John’s suicide.
John, as mentioned in the last paragraph, is also at fault when it comes to the lack of communication in his relationship with Ann. He’s described by Ann as slow and not good with conversation. He’s a very work driven man, and it makes it difficult for him to sit with Ann and have a nice, relaxed conversation. Ultimately, because he is a farmer, he doesn’t have many chances to have a nice long talk with his wife, so the lack of communication is not solely Ann’s fault. John, after discovering that his wife has cheated on him after 7 years of marriage, doesn’t confront her. He doesn’t attempt to speak with her at all; instead he decides that her happiness is more important, and it’s implied that he walks back out into the snowstorm and kills himself. Obviously, John’s death could have been avoided if he had actually said something to Ann before committing suicide. However, this can be considered as a very crucial moment of the story, as it proves why a lack of communication is important in a relationship, though to a very extreme measure. Because Ann, and John especially, didn’t have experience sharing their thoughts when they were unhappy, John didn’t have the ability to speak his mind when he needed to the most. They could have potentially talked about it and found a result that wouldn’t have ended in John’s death, even if it hadn’t been the happiest of endings. However, because there was very little communication in their relationship, the two couldn’t find a way to resolve their problems, and it ended in John committing
The protagonist is Ann who has lived on the farm with her husband of seven years. Her life is tedious and lonely. Her nearest neighbor is Stephen, a bachelor living on a farm about two miles away. John, Ann’s husband, has little ambition other than make his farm work. He loves Ann and is very proud that she is his wife. On the other hand, Ann finds much that she is
After Susanna leaves Johnny and Raintree country, she quickly realizes that she needs Johnny in her life as a paternal figure, so she deceives him into marriage by faking a pregnancy. Due to her mental instability, Susanna believes that she finally found another father-figure in Johnny after her father died, so therefore, she will do anything to trap Johnny into a life with her. Additionally, since she craves Johnny`s attention similar to a child, Susanna does not want to disappoint Johnny and goes as far as changing her ideals on slavery by ridding herself of slaves simply to placate to Johnny`s wishes. Moreover, towards the conclusion of the film, when Neil encourages Johnny to run for public office, Johnny is unable to as he must take of his unstable wife, causing Susanna`s worst nightmare comes true: disappointing her “father”. As any child would, Susanna yearns to gain back her father`s trust, so she attempts to fix her their relationship by finding the raintree Johnny searched for in his youth. In the end, Johnny`s rejection of Susanna as a “daughter” caused her to commit suicide, since she was devastated by losing two of her fathers. As a result, the film portrays mentally unstable people as immature and unable to live independent lives.
It is clear that in their marriage, her husband makes her decisions on her behalf and she is expected to simply follow blindly. Their relationship parallels the roles that men and women play in marriage when the story was written. The narrator’s feelings of powerlessness and submissive attitudes toward her husband are revealing of the negative effects of gender roles. John’s decision to treat the narrator with rest cure leads to the narrator experiencing an intense feeling of isolation, and this isolation caused her mental decline. Her descent into madness is at its peak when she grows tears the wallpaper and is convinced that “[she’s] got out at last, in spite of [John] and Jennie… and [they] can’t put her back!”
On the other hand; the stranger in Ann’s life, John Loomis, had an extremely negative impact. Mr Loomis presents a major threat to Ann’s life and scares her out of her own home. It was his intrusion that led to the death of her dog and drove Ann to make the decision to escape and find other life. While we do not find out what happened to Ann in the end, we are filled with hope by her viewing of the birds flying around in the poisoned habitat.
The alienation of Ross’ characters in “The Painted Door” and “One’s a Heifer” , eventually leads to a form of drastic life changing event. In “The Painted Door”, Ann starts doubting her relationship with her husband, which leads to his death. When she sees Steven, a younger friend of John that he sent to keep her company till his return in the evening, she starts comparing them, and how he has “ features and smile that were different from John’s, from other men’s ... His hair was dark and trim, his young lips curved and soft and full” (Ross 297) . Ann cannot help but to be attracted to Steven, because he is all John is not. The repeated juxtaposition of John and Steven by Ann hints to her cheating on her husband, or a least, the wavering
With nobody but herself at home, Ann strongly desires to talk to someone, and that someone who arrives at her house is Steven. Ann who has been feeling anxious and helpless while isolated suddenly feels relief when Steven comes as shown, “-and suddenly at the assurance of his touch and voice the fear that had been gripping her gave way to an hysteria of relief.” Steven helps comfort Ann, while Ann is being cautious of herself. She knows that Steven is enticing, but will not give in to him despite how attractive she finds him. Steven is the complete opposite of John and Ann compares John to Steven multiple times, “Steven’s smile, and therefore difficult to reprove. It lit up his lean, still-boyish face with a peculiar kind of arrogance: features and smile that were different from John’s.” and even favours Steven more than her husband. Ann is used to seeing John’s features but not Steven’s. This excites Ann and prompts her to develop feelings that are of a high school girls’, “She didn’t understand, but she knew. The texture of the moment was satisfyingly dreamlike.” It takes Ann a moment to realize that her object of temptation is right in front of her, and it does not take long for her to take the opportunity to ease her boredom and isolation through her upcoming
All sense of individuality and self worth is taken way from the narrator when her name is never revealed to the audience. Furthermore, John continues to belittle his wife by giving her the command to not walk around at night. Although the John thinks in his mind that he is looking out for the best interest of his wife, in actuality, he is taking away his wife’s abilities to make choices for herself. There is a possibility that John’s controlling personality is one of the factors that led to his wife’s psychosis. Such a controlling life style more than likely limited the narrator’s ability to live any life outside of the home.
John’s approach appears to be logical as he decided it would be better for his wife to escape her depression by moving temporary to an isolated estate where air, water, greenery, and calmness should be the uplifting factors in his wife’s journey towards gaining strength and getting better. The narrator disagrees with her husband’s decisions on how she should stay and do what he decided for her in this retreat, but follows his orders regardless. John’s treatment of his wife consists of medical prescriptions, “I take phosphates or phosphites-whichever it is-and tonics,...
The story is taking place in a prairie. The first line of pg. 47 declares that. The same page is talking about a storm might be coming. I guess, there is a ocean near the prairie. On pg. 48, I found that the prairie landscape is discomforting due to the fact that it seems alive. It also talks about the farmsteads are there to intensify the situation. That same page talking about putting fire. It is taking place during winter, and may be somewhere during December. I think, the time is during the Great Depression of 1930's. In pg. 51 we found that John's farm is under mortgage. The same page tells, He works hard too much to earn some dollars. From pg. 52, I also found, he does not appoint any helper. In pg. 52, Ann remembers about their good time as well. Now, they are not having that of a easy life. They are tired by the labour. These all quotations proves that, the setting of the story is in a hill during the great depression of 1930's.
As the story begins, the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen. She states, "John laughs at me, but one expects that in marriage" (Gilman 577). These words clearly illustrate the male's position of power in a marriage t...
...k’s repeated writings of the words “I Need You” to his wife seem ethically and morally conflicting to Ann as, in the midst of all that has occurred between Jack and Ann, his message is so blatantly out of character for Jack’s communicative style. Initially, Jack’s choice of words may represent Jack’s true need for his wife’s help, as he is dependent on her because of his medical condition. It soon becomes clear that Jack’s verbiage represents his true emotions and, as Jack utters his first words to his wife following his surgery, the repair of Jack and Ann’s relationship truly begins.
Immediately, the narrator stereotypes the couple by saying “they looked unmistakably married” (1). The couple symbolizes a relationship. Because marriage is the deepest human relationship, Brush chose a married couple to underscore her message and strengthen the story. The husband’s words weaken their relationship. When the man rejects his wife’s gift with “punishing…quick, curt, and unkind” (19) words, he is being selfish. Selfishness is a matter of taking, just as love is a matter of giving. He has taken her emotional energy, and she is left “crying quietly and heartbrokenly” (21). Using unkind words, the husband drains his wife of emotional strength and damages their relationship.
Even though her husband treats her with what seem at first as love, it becomes clear she is nothing more to him than a piece of property. Every time he talks to her, he asks her to get better for his sake and the children's, and only after mentions hers interests. He doesn't think that she has any normal human feelings or worries and attributes her behavior to minor nervous depression. He doesn't see her true suffering since he believes "there is no reason to suffer" (574). He could never understand that a woman can be unsatisfied with the role imposed on her by society. Even though the heroine recognizes that her condition is caused by something other than John's theory, she is too scared to voice her opinion.
When Steven arrives, they are isolated together in the house, which allows Ann to truly give into her attraction. However, she insists that John will return, saying “He always comes.” John’s isolation from Ann greatly influences if she chooses temptation or not. If John came back, she could not have the freedom to choose Steven, as they would no longer be isolated. She hopes John will not return home, worrying that “it really might be John at the door.” Ann actively desires the isolation with Steven, so she can give into her temptation, reassured that there will be no consequence. Initially, Ann insists that John will come back so she does not have to be alone with Steven. If she accepts that she is alone with Steven and that they are isolated together, there will be nothing stopping her from following her temptation, as she already gave into her thoughts. As the night progresses, her temptation makes her cave into choosing him. However, the final push was the reassurance that John was not coming back and it was just Ann and Steven, alone together. When she conclusively decides to act on her temptation, she sees Steven differently, realizing “his smile…there seemed a kind of warmth…instead of his smile it was she had changed.” Their isolation is the deciding factor. If they weren’t alone together, Ann’s temptation would not have taken control and would not have changed