As an agent of either utter destruction or fruitful prosperity, ambivalence serves as the catalyst to separate the before and after of an individual's life. At the end of the line, that path that was once shrouded in confusion becomes clear, and the outcome of each potential choice can be seen. In Sinclair Ross’ “The Painted Door”, the treacherous setting embodies an edge of escalating ambivalence in Ann’s character as she is awakened to the reality of her routine life, ultimately causing her to spiral into the rising storm of her suffocating loneliness and reckless desperation. As the impending external blizzard begins, Ann faces her own internal battle over the opportunities presented in her emotionally destitute state.
As the ferocity …show more content…
The cold of the storm is purposed as a metaphor for the debilitating loneliness that Ann feels. The house begins to get cold again in the wake of John's absence, and despite stoking the already burning fire, the “warmth spread[s] slowly” through the numbing sensation of Ann's isolation, which causes her to find even more discomfort in herself. Delved headfirst into the abyss of her solitude, Ann’s own emotions become personified within the storm outside. As the wind begins to tear against her shelter inside the house, Ann fails to realize that it is the wind, not her, that is “thin strained and whimpering”. This humanistic trait is given to the wind to exemplify that the ferocity of the storm outside is matched only by the storm within Ann. The sound imagery of the wind is used to give a voice to the suffocating feeling of Ann’s cry for help. In reality, the “silence [of her isolation is] more intense than ever” and the loneliness, created both by the repetitiveness of her routine and the lethal squall outside, has become deafening. This loneliness is one of the most influential motivators in the existence of Ann’s ambivalence throughout the duration of the passage. As the “sky and prairie [merge] into one another linelessly”, Ann’s ambivalence begins to close in on her, forcing her to face the bleakness of her choices. Right and wrong merge into one, separated only by the horizon of her desperation to be free from suffocating feeling of her
As the ferocity …show more content…
The cold of the storm is purposed as a metaphor for the debilitating loneliness that Ann feels. The house begins to get cold again in the wake of John's absence, and despite stoking the already burning fire, the “warmth spread[s] slowly” through the numbing sensation of Ann's isolation, which causes her to find even more discomfort in herself. Delved headfirst into the abyss of her solitude, Ann’s own emotions become personified within the storm outside. As the wind begins to tear against her shelter inside the house, Ann fails to realize that it is the wind, not her, that is “thin strained and whimpering”. This humanistic trait is given to the wind to exemplify that the ferocity of the storm outside is matched only by the storm within Ann. The sound imagery of the wind is used to give a voice to the suffocating feeling of Ann’s cry for help. In reality, the “silence [of her isolation is] more intense than ever” and the loneliness, created both by the repetitiveness of her routine and the lethal squall outside, has become deafening. This loneliness is one of the most influential motivators in the existence of Ann’s ambivalence throughout the duration of the passage. As the “sky and prairie [merge] into one another linelessly”, Ann’s ambivalence begins to close in on her, forcing her to face the bleakness of her choices. Right and wrong merge into one, separated only by the horizon of her desperation to be free from suffocating feeling of her