English: Essay
“The Painted Door” is a short story written by Ross Sinclair. The story revolves around the uncontrollable desires of a woman who cheats on her husband. The husband feels betrayed and kills himself. The essay attempts to analyze the short story with a view to highlighting important aspects of the story.
“The Painted Door” is written by Ross Sinclair that describes the story of a woman, Anne who betrays her husband during a storm night. Anne is alone at the house during a snow storm while her husband John is away to his father’s house. Anne tries to stop John from helping his aged father in tackling the issue of farm labor; however, John decides to travel to father’s house despite the onset of the storm. While John is away, in order to keep herself busy, Anne decides to paint the door of her bedroom. Stephan, who is a friend of John, and lives in the same neighborhood, visits Anne to give her company. The company ends up with both sleeping together during the stormy night. John returns home and sees both his wife and friend together in the bed. He feels terribly cheated and dishonored. He is unable to sustain the biggest shock of his life. He goes out of the house and commits suicide. Next morning, John corpus is found in the fields with one hand painted white. John painted white hand clearly indicates the fact that he had come to the house, opened the door of the bedroom and seen wife and Stephan together in the bed.
The story of Anne highlights the untrustworthiness of the women gender. The story describes the dissatisfaction prevailing in the character of Anne due to the simple and hardworking nature of her husband. John is a simple person who works hard to pay his debts and fulfill the desires of his wife Anne. However, simplicity and hard work is not good enough for Anne and she does not feel contented. John is happy and satisfied with the relationship and puts in his best to sustain the bond, whereas, there is a clear indication that Anne is not happy with her present life. Anne is not comfortable and feels under-privileged being the wife of John. She is not satisfied with her life with John and feels incomplete and dissatisfied; therefore, she falls for Stephan. She betrays her husband by failing to control herself that results in the death of her husband John, and destruction of her marriage.
The character of Stephan in the story is more treacherous in nature. He is a best friend to John with a relationship of trust between the two. Stephan visit to John’s house in his absence indicates Stephan’s earlier intentions of sleeping with Anne. Despite knowing that John was away, Stephan visit to Anne during the snow storm leads to the creation of favorable environment for the undesired incident. Stephan violates the privacy of John and cheats on his best friend. Anne’s willingness to go to bed with Stephan is a result of Stephan’s presence in the house. Stephan appears to be the main character causing the death of John and destroying the marriage of a couple. Stephan is also responsible for bringing bad name to the sacred relationship of friendship between John and himself.
The story also signifies the weakness in the personality of John, who, as a husband could not satisfy the needs of her wife. When a man is strong enough to satisfy her lady, there are remote chances of any betrayal. John’s wife is not satisfied and looks for the new things in her life that are beyond her capacity. Also, John suicide is another strong indication of the weak personality of John. John opted for a loser’s way to end his life after seeing his wife and friend together in the bed. He lacked the courage to face the reality and ask Anne about the reasons for betrayal. He did not wash his painted white hand before committing suicide so as to convey Anne and Stephan he knew the story. The story also projects John as a sensitive person who could not take the betrayal by his wife and friend.
“The Painted Door” is about the feelings of love, friendship, hard work and betrayal. The three characters of the story, John, Anne and Stephan are equally responsible for the dreadful end to the life of John. John could have fulfilled the desires of her wife and cemented his bond of marriage in order to avoid the betrayal. Anne could have controlled her emotions when she was alone with Stephan. Stephan could have thought of the treacherous act while sleeping with the wife of his best friend. John could have shown some courage after seeing both Anne and Stephan in the bed, and lived to confront Anne. However, the impulsive nature of people and things change the circumstances in the undesired manner and let unexpected happen. There exists no prior secret relationship between Anne and Stephan but they fall prey to the trap of their emotional needs when they are together in a stormy night at the John’s house. John’s act of committing suicide is another shocking event of the story that comes as a surprise to the reader. “The Painted Door” is a good read and keeps the reader absorbed throughout the story.
Rough Work
- John, Anne and Stephen are equally responsible for the death of John.
- John is more to blame as he did not justify his role as a strong husband and a person. He did not give his wife enough love and attention which leads to Anne cheating on him. Stephan is responsible for crime of dishonesty with his best friend.
- Importance of affection, attention and contentment in a woman’s life.
Work Cited
Ross, Sinclair. The Painted Door. Canada : Oxford University Pres. 2001. Print
