The painted door of the story’s title represents Ann’s desire for both control and excitement in her life. Ann wishes that she could have new, pretty things and live a more exciting life, but she feels unable to do anything to make that happen. She paints the bedroom door when John leaves her home alone to keep herself busy, and to make their little house seem new and exciting. This seems to work at first, but later she acknowledges that the weather is too cold which means the paint won’t dry nicely, and that it has only distracted her from her boredom for a short amount of time. When first she, then John smudges the paint, it not only provides a crucial plot point to the story (as the paint from the door on John’s hand shows that he did come home and see Ann in bed with Steven) but is also representative of moments in which the true nature of their marriage and their feelings for each other is revealed.
The Painted Door Quotes in The Painted Door
“Warm and safe—I’m a fool. It’s a good chance when he’s away to paint. The day will go quickly. I won’t have time to brood.”
Since November now the paint had been waiting warmer weather. The frost in the walls on a day like this would crack and peel it as it dried, but she needed something to keep her hands occupied, something to stave off the gathering cold and loneliness.
She was young still, eager for excitement and distractions; and John’s steadfastness rebuked her vanity, made her complaints seem weak and trivial. She went on fretfully, “If he’d listen to me sometimes and not be so stubborn we wouldn’t be living still in a house like this. Seven years in two rooms—seven years and never a new stick of furniture... There—as if another coat of paint could make it different anyway.”
The Painted Door Symbol Timeline in The Painted Door
