The Painted Door

Sinclair Ross’s short story “The Painted Door” explores themes of Isolation and Loneliness, as the rural setting is physically isolating for the characters. The nearest neighbors are miles away, and the landscape outside John and Ann’s home seems “strangely alien to life” (1), mirroring Ann’s feelings that she is living a half-existence. The bitter weather is another isolating factor, as even a short journey in the storm is dangerous. The author establishes the storm as a character of its own, driving the plot and reflecting the characters’ emotions and inner conflict. At the beginning of the narrative, when John reveals his intention to visit his father, Ann’s response as she looks out at the winter landscape is “cold, as if the words were chilled by the contact with the frosted pane” (1). Her emotional coldness, triggered by resentment, is echoed by the physical landscape outside. Later, when Ann steps into the storm, the weather is personified, choking Ann and making it impossible for her to breathe. As well as foreshadowing the storm’s fatal power (illustrated with John’s death), the sensation represents the suffocating effects of Ann’s isolated life.

After John leaves, Ann remains alone in the farmhouse for a large portion of the narrative. She is both emotionally and physically isolated from John and the larger community. Her decision to paint the kitchen represents her desire for change and her limited means of achieving it. While the paint superficially freshens the domestic space, its contents remain unchanged. A limited third-person point of view conveys the protagonist’s thoughts, and much of the plot consists of Ann’s reflections on her life, her relationship with John, and her unfulfilled desires.

Ann’s thoughts introduce the theme of Aging and the Passage of Time. The ticking of the clock in the silence of the house represents her anxiety that her youth is slipping away. While John is devoted to Ann and strives to provide anything he can for her, the couple has conflicting goals. He is practical and wants financial security, while Ann thinks that “it [is] something of life she want[s], not just a house and furniture” (3). The couple’s differing views about finances underline the story’s historical context. The Great Depression created intense stress about money, especially on farms, after years of poor crops due to the Dust Bowl.

The introduction of Steven’s character establishes the theme of Temptation and Betrayal. The couple’s neighbor serves as a foil to John, appearing to represent all that is missing from Ann’s marriage. Ann’s memories reveal that seven years earlier, she danced with Steven several times, as John was too self-conscious to partner her. For Ann, the event embodied the fun and excitement of being young. She continues to think of the warmth and connection of that moment, which starkly contrasts with her present loneliness, unhappiness, and isolation. While the narrative doesn’t explicitly state that Ann and Steven end up having sex, Ann’s subsequent guilt after her dream implies that they did. Blinded by her craving for novelty and passion, Ann fails to see Steven’s flaws until she has betrayed John with him. However, before they sleep together, Ross creates dramatic irony by ensuring that readers are aware of Steven’s arrogance and manipulative manner as he seduces Ann. His self-assured pursuit of pleasure contrasts with John’s selfless attempts to make his wife happy. Narrative tension is created as readers recognize before Ann that succumbing to temptation will be a mistake.

The end of the story has several layers of meaning. On the level of plot, the discovery of John’s body is shocking. The abrupt news of his death is followed by the twist of Ann noticing the white paint on John’s hand. The discovery recontextualizes the events of the night before, implying that Ann was not dreaming when she saw John in the bedroom. The paint on his palm indicates that he returned home, opened the freshly painted door, and saw Ann and Steven in bed together. This new information also recontextualizes John’s death, suggesting that Ann’s betrayal prompted him to walk back into the blizzard, deliberately ending his own life. John’s suicide is implied rather than explicitly referenced. Earlier in the story, this event is foreshadowed by Steven’s assertion that it would be “suicide” to attempt to go out in the storm.

John’s death is juxtaposed with Ann’s epiphany that her husband is, in fact, the right man for her. The proximity of her emotional recommitment and the discovery of his death heightens the intensity of this scene, incorporating a layer of bitter irony. The story’s conclusion highlights other ironic elements in the narrative. While John goes out of his way to invite Steven over, hoping to cure Ann’s loneliness, his actions ultimately drive him to his death. Additionally, the white paint that Ann uses to lift her mood serves to reveal her role in her husband’s death. Although paint initially symbolizes Ann’s desire for novelty, it comes to represent a change she neither anticipated nor wanted.

In the final paragraph of the story, the point of view shifts. Up until that point, the narrative perspective is close third-person limited, and the reader is privy to Ann’s thoughts and memories. With the discovery of John’s body, the point of view becomes more distant and objective. For example, the reader does not see how Ann reacts to the news. Instead, the narrative delivers the information that an unnamed group simply referred to as “they” found John’s body. The technique of distancing the reader from Ann’s emotions makes the ending feel more abrupt.