In the short stories written by Sinclair Ross, "The Painted Door" and "The Lamp at Noon" two are three main conflicts which are incorporated into both stories in different ways. Isolation from others, because of lack of communication, and the outside world causes the wives to break down. In both these stories, the wives need a way of communication to better their relationships with their husbands. Another conflict is the internal conflicts the wives deal with during their time alone inside their heads. They have feelings they must express to their hard-working husbands, but are conveyed in different ways.

In both of these stories, the women feel isolated physically and emotionally. The nearest neighbors are miles away, and they feel distant from their husbands because they do not communicate as a married couple should. In "The Painted Door", Ann is married to a hard-working, but naïve, man...