Johnson, the main character in “Like A Winding Sheet,” is characterized by contradictions and ambiguities, especially regarding the type of man he thinks he is compared to his actual behavior throughout the story. Petry uses a limited omniscient narrator who speaks from a third-person perspective but is privy only to Johnson’s thoughts. This dynamic generates the irony of the story’s ending because closeness to his internal dialogue offers explanations—and evokes sympathy—for his behavior despite the violence that he ultimately uses.

Throughout the story, certain interactions between Johnson and Mae suggest that Johnson harbors increasing resentment for Mae as a result of his fatigue and work conditions. He notices, for instance, that she hardly ever seems as exhausted as he feels; he fixates on the fact that Mae’s factory has a more efficient payment system than his workplace; and he suggests that his fatigue may partially be Mae’s fault: “And he thought if he and Mae would go right to bed when they got home from work they’d catch a few hours of darkness for sleeping. But they never did” (Paragraph 48). Despite some subtle resentments, Johnson believes that he is the type of man who would never hit a woman, a characteristic that he continues to fixate on as he confronts women throughout the story.