The Painted Door

The Painted Door – A Canadian Short Story Essay, Research Paper For a short story to be effective, it must be able to produce high levels of intensity, emotion and drama. To do this, it must convey a great deal of information in a short space of time. As a result, the short story usually leaves a great deal of its content open to interpretation and examination by the reader. Also, the denouements of short stories frequently remain inconclusive and unfulfilled. Together, these attributes add to the action and intriguing character of this genre of literature. An essential element of the short story is to make the personal events experienced by the characters universally understood by the reader. The story must present themes which are relevant to the reader, in order for it

to make an impression. For this reason, short stories tend to be based on some type of controversy or debatable issue. In Sinclair Ross? highly metaphorical short story ?The Painted Door?, the explicit theme is centered on adultery. However, there are other, more subtle, motifs in the story that play a very significant a role in its success. The themes essential in making the protagonist?s adultery understandable are the landscape, her isolation, and the feelings of betrayal and guilt that she experiences following the central act of the story. A great deal of this story is spent describing Ann?s environment, both inside and outside her house. The story takes place in the past, before automobiles or telephones. Ann and her husband are settlers in a largely uninhabited and

desolate area of North America (perhaps Saskatchewan). The starkness of the land is described early in the story: ?Scattered across the face of so vast and bleak a wilderness it was difficult to conceive [the distant farmsteads] as a testimony of human hardihood and endurance.? (246). Page Two The barrenness of the surroundings in which the characters live produces an impression of extreme, almost unbearable, isolation and loneliness. This theme, perhaps the most vividly expressed theme of the story, pervades throughout the entire duration of the narrative. At one level, it serves to explain how the circumstances of Ann?s adultery arise, but, on another level, the description of the terrain serves a metaphor for the spirit itself. In other words, the emptiness of her surroundings

point to the feelings of emptiness and loneliness she experiences. In this way, we can empathise with Ann through the descriptive passages of her bleak surroundings. Her attempts to keep herself occupied during the absence of her husband by carrying on with the household chores further emphasises the sense of tedium in her life. The almost exaggerated meticulousness in the way she proceeds with her chores illustrates her attempts at detaching herself from the reality of her isolation (does the house really need to be painted in the middle of winter?). The weather outside deteriorates as her concern for her husband increases. She ventures outside the safety and warmth of the house to feed the horses in the stables. The blizzard is so ferocious that by the time she returns to the

house, she realises that if her husband had ventured home in the storm, he has little chance of surviving the journey. The storm thus serves as a metaphor both for Ann?s anxiety about her present life, and also for regrets about past decisions. The physical separation from her husband signifies the isolation Ann is experiencing in her marital relationship. Together, these emotions make it possible for Ann to engage in an act that under normal conditions, would be out of character for her. Page Three At this point, Steven, their neighbour, arrives. We learn that Ann considers Steven attractive, perhaps even more attractive than her husband. The sexual tension between them soon becomes apparent: ?Something was at hand that hitherto had always eluded her, even in the early days with