Tension Between Ann And John

In life, happiness is a goal you try to achieve, but there tends to be distractions that lead you onto a path that goes in an opposite direction of that end goal. The distractions that lead you away from happiness are seen through Ann, Steven and John. This story is a story of adultery and betrayal. One of the main characters, John, goes out to walk the five miles to go see if his father will be alright for the pending blizzard. It was on this journey to go and help his father that we see Ann, John’s wife, not be able to handle being alone, so their neighbour, Steven, comes over and him and Ann break the sexual tension that they had for each other. John then comes back home although Ann had lost all hope of ever seeing him again, and he catches …show more content…
This tension between them distracts Ann from true happiness because ever since Ann and Steven first danced together many years ago, she has always felt a special something for him, the same feeling when she first met John. This tension is first seen when Steven first enters the house after Ann attempted going to feed the animals in the stable and didn’t succeed and then he comforted her which reminded her of how sweet she thinks Steven is. “She felt eager, challenged. Something was at hand that hitherto had always eluded her, even in the early days with John, something vital, beckoning, meaningful.” (Ross. 297) This quote shows the distraction from happiness because this tension is foreshadowing the possibility of Ann cheating on John with Steven, which is a distraction from the true happiness that Ann would have with John. As this tension builds throughout the story, later on in the story when Ann wants to compare Steven and John’s facial feature and she is struggling to look at Steven due to the tension between them. “Intending that it should be only for and instant, just to breathe again, to ease the tension that had grown unbearable – but in his smile now, instead of the insolent appraisal that she feared, there seemed a kind of warm and sympathy.” (Ross. 300) This shows the distraction from happiness because after this Ann has a breakdown and Steven then comforts her, …show more content…
In the beginning of the story Ann experiences hopelessness when John first left to go check on his father and when the blizzard begins. She experiences this hopeless feeling while she is first painting the door, to distract herself of the fact that John isn’t there. “It doesn’t matter what becomes of me. In a storm like this he’ll never get home. He won’t even try.”(Ross. 294) This quote demonstrates the distraction from happiness because this negative thought of John never coming back shows that she is becoming distracted from being happy with John who is the person to be with on that goal of happiness. The hopelessness continues through the story, but this time we see it through John. We see this hopelessness in John when he first comes back home and catches Ann in bed with Steven. “Until suddenly as she lay staring up at him a gleam of light revealed his face. And in it was not a trace of threat or anger- only calm and stone-like hopelessness.” (Ross. 301) What John saw proves that Ann got distracted on her path to happiness because she broke the tension she had with Steven and committed adultery. In summation, the hopelessness seen through Ann and John show that Ann was distracted on her journey to happiness because when she thought he was never coming back and when Steven was there to comfort her she broke the tension