Jennifer always thought of herself as a good wife. She was caring and trusting. Jennifer knew her husband Mark more than anyone else--at least she thought she did, but one day, everything seemed to change. It was around 3 p.m in the middle of the summer in San Francisco, California when Jennifer walked by her husband’s office. She stopped and stood in front of the closed door when she heard him speaking quietly and quickly into the phone. Jennifer listened closely. “Can you come over later; I need to see you A.S.A.P” Mark whispered. Suddenly, Jennifer was hit with a wave of shock. She immediately panicked and felt hot. Jennifer knew exactly what it could have been. She didn’t want to believe that Mark could actually be cheating on her. Mark ended the phone call and Jennifer walked away and tried to go about the rest of her day. Later on that night, Jennifer made dinner for her and her husband. Trying to fight back the tears, she immediately overreacted about the broken air conditioning. Knowing that it wasn’t a big deal, Jennifer was still upset about the phone conversation she overheard earlier in the day. “It’s been broken for a while now!” she shouted, “Why can’t you just fix it?”. “I’ve been busy” said Mark. This worried Jennifer. “Yeah, you have been lately”. Mark didn’t seem to think anything of it. It was almost as if Mark didn’t seem to care at all. Jennifer didn’t understand, he had always been a good husband. Mark always saved time for Jennifer and they had been married for 20 years. She couldn’t imagine getting a divorce with Mark. Their relationship was her entire life. Jennifer didn’t give up, instead she decided to investigate more of the situation. The next morning Jennifer waited for Mark to leave for work. She... ... middle of paper ... ...you’re being paranoid”. Jennifer felt unsettled, but decided to say nothing else. In Jennifer’s eyes, Mark had changed, and she was determined to prove it. The next day Mark finally had the air conditioning installed and returned to work. Jennifer did not get out of bed at all that entire day. Mark came home from work late, and again went straight to his office. He sat there for awhile as if he was waiting for something. Suddenly Jennifer tip-toed down the stairs and stood in front of the door to Mark’s office. She opened the door quickly and shot Mark just as he turned around. Not long after, the phone rang. Jennifer picked up the phone. “Hello?”. It was a woman’s voice on the other end. “Is Mark there?” the Woman asked. “No...he won’t be back for a long time” Jennifer said. “Can you just tell him that Lindsay called?” The woman asked. Jennifer hung up the phone.
In the short story, “The Painted Door”, John and Ann are a married couple, who have been together for seven years, and yet despite this fact, they still have trouble communicating. Ann wishes, from the very beginning of the story, that John would stay at home with her rather than go to check on his father. However, rather than expressing these sentiments exactly, she acts very cold towards him and insists that she’ll be perfectly fine, trying to guilt him into staying. Though it works, as John offers to stay with her rather than visiting his father’s farm, Ann decides to instead push away her feelings of spite and loneliness and allows him to leave, despite worrying about his safety and how she’s going to cope while John is gone. This is the
...observes the situation as merely a problem that requires a quick fix, and he sets about “fixing” the situation instead of fulfilling Kathy’s emotional needs.
As the story begins, the character of the husband has a negative personality. He lacks compassion, is narrow-minded, and is jealous of his wife’s friendship with a blind man named Robert. His constantly complains that “a blind man in my house was not something [he looked] forward to” (362). The close outside friendship between the narrator’s wife and Robert provokes his insecurities. This friendship has lasted for ten years and during those years, they have exchanged countless tapes regarding experiences they have gone through. Because of this, her husband feels “she [has] told him everything or it so it seemed” (363) about their relationship.
After a decade of not seeing his mother and brother, Howard returns to his hometown in Mississippi. It is evident how thrilled he is. As the train approaches town, he begins “to feel curious little movements of the heart, like a lover as he nears his sweetheart” (par. 3). He expects this visit to be a marvelous and welcoming homecoming. His career and travel have kept his schedule extremely full, causing him to previously postpone this trip to visit his family. Although he does not immediately recognize his behavior in the past ten years as neglectful, there are many factors that make him aware of it. For instance, Mrs. McLane, Howard’s mother, has aged tremendously since he last saw her. She has “grown unable to write” (par. 72). Her declining health condition is an indicator of Howard’s inattentiveness to his family; he has not been present to see her become ill. His neglect strikes him harder when he sees “a gray –haired woman” that showed “sorrow, resignation, and a sort of dumb despair in her attitude” (par. 91). Clearly, she is growing old, and Howard feels guilty for not attending her needs for such a long time period: “his throat [aches] with remorse and pity” (par. 439). He has been too occupied with his “excited and pleasurable life” that he has “neglected her” (par. 92). Another indication of Howard’s neglect is the fact that his family no longer owns the farm and house where he grew up. They now reside in a poorly conditioned home:
However, the reader must always keep in mind the time at which this piece was written and how these relationships exemplify the realities of personal relationships during this time era. Her relationship with John is dominated by him and is almost like she is the child. Without anyone to speak to about her true feelings and stresses, she writes, another thing she must hide from John and Jennie. The reader feels a sense of fear from the narrator, “there comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 78). Yet another sign of how he does not want his wife thinking for herself and doing what she pleases. When learning about the author and her background, her feminist side shows in this piece through examples like these. The true dark sides of marriage, the loneliness, and the female role of always being superior are portrayed perfectly in this short
The actress states, “There’s got to be more to this marriage than a few hastily scribbled words on a small square of pastel paper! By the way. We’re out of post-its,” (Dooley and Holzman, 852). This results in the audience to question the actress’s goal of fixing the relationship with her husband, because the audience understands that she is unhappy with how they communicate, yet still asks for more of the basis of the communicative ways they do now, seeing no end to the repetitive cycle (Dooley and Holzman, 852). It is clear that the conversations between the two characters make the audience questionable of the character’s relationship in many ways.
Progress is seen on the front of Claudia and Carolyn’s relationship. David attempts to reorganizes his relationship with Claudia in an effort to remove the pressure placed on her. However, the battle between Carolyn and Claudia continues to ebb and rise as the family narrows in on the dynamics of David and Carolyn’s relationship. Napier states to Claudia that, “...the family unconsciously agreed to go back to your and Carolyn’s war to rescue your mom and dad from the hot seat” (p. 137). When the family finally breaks free from this structure the exploration of David and Carolyn’s own relationship becomes the most critical aspect in therapy.
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.
Arriving at Lacey’s house I walk to the backdoor letting myself into the house. Lacey was putting on tanning lotion in the kitchen, “Lacey,” I called to her, “my mom wants me to pick up snacks for the beach, do you want to go into town with me?”, “Sure,” she replied, “do you mind if my cousin comes with us?”, “Of course I don’t mind,“ I answered, “but we have to get moving, my dad only left me the car to use ‘til noon.”
In order to gain that experience they will be unfaithful to their partners. Curiosity is a characteristic that many people have. In order to satisfy their curiosity they search for an exciting adventurous journey to go on. In this short story it clearly states that Ann has the desire to be adventurous as shown in the statement: “She was young still, eager for excitement and distractions”(54). Whereas John is the polar opposite of Ann. Therefore Ann betrays John with Steven since Steven gave her these feelings that she wanted to rediscover. He gives her his full attention, something that she lacked from John. This is shown from the actions of steven: “he was watching her, smiling”(62). Following this action, Ann “raised her head and met his eyes again”(62). In this moment it truly pictures a typical love-stricken couple which is not visible in Ann and John’s relationship. In addition, her new relationship with Steven is just like the start of a new adventure. Moreover, people would love to experience the thrill again of discovering new love. In the short story, Ann portrays characteristics of someone who has just discovered new love as she acts rigid and forgets to breath while in front of Steven. This is shown when the author describes her: “She dared not move, unclench her hands, or raise her eyes”(62) and “Intending that it should be for only an instant, just to breath
While she is analyzing John and Jennie’s change in behavior, she concludes that “he [asks her] all sorts of questions, too, and [pretends to be] loving and kind. As if [she] couldn’t see through him” (Gilman 402). She takes John’s act of kindness and care as a disguise to find out more about her sickness. She thinks John and Jennie “are secretly affected by it” (402). John has control over her life so she does not understand why he feels the need to treat her right. She thinks his kindness and love is temporary, so she protects herself by pushing him away. Her sickness is making her feel paranoid about having the wallpaper to herself. The yellow wallpaper is the first thing she feels that John does not have control over. A part of her recognizes that John is changing and the other part of her tries to understand his
After filing for divorce and agreeing to joint custody of their nine-year-old daughter, David eventually finds love again with another man named Tom. However, when him and Tom bump into his daughter and former wife at a local diner, David introduces Tom as an old work friend. Though David could have easily expected a serious argument with Tom after that encounter, he fears a life without his daughter. Despite the fact that David knew his daughter had no negative feelings towards her best friend who was adopted from China by a same-sex lesb...
Amanda Wingfield is the mother of Tom and Laura. She is a gracefully aging Southern Belle seemingly stuck on the values and traditions of the past that she once flourished so well in. Even though she has been abandoned by her husband and left to care for two children alone, Amanda is ever resiliently optimistic – though her life is not at all what she had planned for it to be. To Tom she is a constant nag and even more of an incentive to chase the dream within his grasp. She is just as dominating with Laura, insisting Laura always be ready and pretty for her “gentleman callers.” Laura knows deep down inside that these callers will never come, but Amanda cannot let go of the idea. She forces Laura to retreat into her world of imagination even further. Jim O'Connor is by the far the most ordinary out of them all. Jim i...
It felt so dragged out because all I wanted was to see him and tell him the news. Our connection felt different, phone calls were made shorter and they weren’t as frequent. I missed him. Two nights had gone by without a phone call or even a message. This wasn’t typical of Luke. I was becoming increasingly worried. I tried to distract myself from the situation and went to Atlanta to visit my parent’s for the weekend. This provided a distraction from my despair. When I arrived home, the flat fell silent. I sat aimlessly on the sofa, starring at the telephone, hoping that maybe it would ring. I tried turning my television on but I was oblivious to anything around me. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I knew something was wrong. Fifty-five minutes passed, as I stared at the phone. That was when I heard it
Jane told Rachel of how she spent her weekend with her boyfriend. They went to the movies on Saturday during the day. During the lunch hour, they took lunch at a five-star hotel that was at the city. After lunch, they went swimming till late in the evening. They went home, had supper then went to the disco. They danced and sang till morning. On Sunday morning, Jane cleaned her house and her clothes. She spent the afternoon sleeping. All this while when Jane was telling the story, Rachel kept widening he eyes and opening her mouth wide without saying anything. She was amazed at how Jane’s weekend was great. When Jane was done telling her story, Rachel said nothing. Jane stopped smiling and asked Rachel why she kept widening her eyes and opening her mouth while she told her the story. Rachel told her she was amused and astonished with the way Jane enjoyed her weekend. Jane told Rachel she was lying and that all that while she thought Jane was loose. Jane and Rachel who were good friends ended up quarrelling, fighting and becoming enemies. This was because of Jane misunderstanding the facial expressions of Rachel towards her while she told the