List three types of conflict with examples from the story "The Painted Door" by Sinclair Ross.

In Sinclair Ross's story, "The Painted Door," life on the
prairie is never dull.  The characters may be bored and lonely, but the reader will find their
story intriguing. 

This story is told in third person limited
omniscient point of view.   Through the protagonist's  thoughts the story finds shape. The
setting is a harsh winter probably in the early twentieth century.  Ross's prose includes little
dialogue but ample  description.

The three characters in the story
are interwined because of the isolation of the prairie life.  Ann and John have been married for
seven years.  John, a loving, loyal husband, admittedly is slow and unambitious.  He is proud of
his wife Ann, who is attractive, but married to a man that has few of the qualities that she
admires.  On this day,  she spends her time painting the door frames to pass the time.  The other
character  is the neighbor Steven, who is everything that John is not:  handsome, well-groomed
and spirited. 

The story's events lead to Ann's seduction by Steven
as she  waits for her husband to return from his father's farm five miles away.  There is a
terrible blizzard raging.  Ann wants her husband to come home: however, it is extremely dangerous
to try.  When Steven, arrives to spend the evening, Ann feels a passion that she has not felt
before.

After giving in to her desires, Ann recognizes Steven's
 lack of guilt for betraying his  friend and his superficiality in contrast to  John's 
devotion. 

Now, Ann understands:

readability="9">

John was the man. With him,  lay all the future. For
tonight, slowly and contritely through the days and years to come, she would make
amends.

Ann's repentance comes too
late. The stunning finale tells the reader and Ann that she must bear the consequences of
her weakness.

In this story, the primary conflict is
psychological.  Ann struggles within herself about her feelings for John.  The
guilt that she feels for her moment of lust leads to a life altering event for the couple.  When
Steven comes, Ann feels an arousal and a longing for intimacy.  As Steven and Ann play the game
of sexual attraction, the events are set in place to lead Ann down the path of guilt and
remorse.  Steven does not feel it.  His night with Ann happened and so what.  To further Ann's
inner turmoil, she realizes that she really loves John:

readability="7">

Clutched by the thought,  she stood rooted a minute...how
she could have so deceived herself---John was the
man.

Ann feels the dream of John
bending over her and retreating back with grief.  This soul stirring conflict takes Ann from
isolated wife to guilty adultress.

Other conflicts in the story add
to the story's drama.  Certainly, man struggles against the forces of
nature.  The blizzard holds a nightmarish effect on the
characters.

For so
fierce now, so insane and dominant did the blizzard seem, that she could not credit the safety of
the house.

This was not just nature,
but the storm of deception and grief that John encounters when he finds his way
home.

Ann struggles against the circumstances that
life has dealt her.  The isolation creates her
disgruntled attitude toward her husband:

readability="5">

It was the silence weighing on her--the frozen silence of
the bitter field and sun-chilled
sky.

Sadly, John is found frozen about
a mile from the house. Ann discovers that it had not been a dream that John was there.  On his
frozen hand, she finds a smear of the paint from the door.