The Painted Door - The Tragedy :: essays research papers

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.