She saw a girl tall and full-figured, with a firm, fair face, looking fairer and firmer in the moonlight, her strong yellow hair braided in a close knot. Louisa feels mild dread at the prospect of losing some of her precious domestic freedom. Now Louisa feels reluctant to trade this life for the one offered by Joe. It was the old homestead; the newly-married couple would live there, for Joe could not desert his mother, who refused to leave her old home. I guess she is; I dont know how motherd get along without her, said Dagget, with a sort of embarrassed warmth. For 14 of those years, Joe has been in Australia to make his fortune. For the greater part of his life he had dwelt in his secluded hut, shut out from the society of his kind and all innocent canine joys. There seemed to be a gentle stir arising over everything for the mere sake of subsidence a very premonition of rest and hush and night. Now the tall weeds and grasses might cluster around Ceasars little hermit hut, the snow might fall on its roof year in and year out, but he never would go on a rampage through the unguarded village. One of Louisas main fears is that Joe will free Caesar, whom she believes is vicious. The story casts Joe in a sympathetic light and emphasizes his desire to act honorably above all else. Louisa was slow and still in her movements; it took her a long time to prepare her tea; but when ready it was set forth with as much grace as if she had been a veritable guest to her own self. Louisa wants to remain autonomous and make her own decisions, but she understands that she wont be able to do this if she marries Joe. Home Literature Analysis of Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freemans A New England Nun. Louisas feeling that Joe will let Caesar loose indicates that, after marriage, the husbands choices overtake the wishes of the wife. Next, Louisa prepares her tea slowly and carefully. Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. The neighbor, who was choleric and smarting with the pain of his wound, had demanded either Ceasars death or complete ostracism. She was wondering if she could not steal away unobserved, when the voice broke the stillness. When Joe Dagget was outside he drew in the sweet evening air with a sigh, and felt much as an innocent and perfectly well-intentioned bear might after his exit from a china shop. Hes back and will marry Louisa. Joe has been coming to see Louisa twice a weekshe and Joe got engaged fifteen years ago, but Joe was across the world, in Australia, seeking his fortune for fourteen of those years. Now what difference did it make which book was on top? said he. But for Louisa the wind had never more than murmured; now it had gone down, and everything was still. Good-evening, said Louisa. That night she and Joe parted more tenderly than they had done for a long time. "A New England Nun" and Feminist Critique, Read the Study Guide for A New England Nun, View the lesson plan for A New England Nun, View Wikipedia Entries for A New England Nun. A New England Nun Study Guide | Literature Guide | LitCharts Louisa gets up and rearranges them, explaining that she always keeps them that way. It is doubtful if, with his limited ambition, he took much pride in the fact, but it is certain that he was possessed of considerable cheap fame. This same aura permeates the home of Louisa Ellis, who neatly puts away her afternoon sewing. And it was all on account of a sin committed when hardly out of his puppyhood. She pictured to herself Ceasar on the rampage through the quiet and unguarded village. Later that night, Joe Dagget comes to visit Louisa. When Joe came she had been expecting him, and expecting to be married for fourteen years, but she was as much surprised and taken aback as if she had never thought of it. Louisa slowly and gracefully prepares her tea; she gets out her best china even though she is the only one partaking; she feeds her dog and washes the china; removes layers of aprons that each signifies a different chore or activity; then, finally, she recommences her sewing. Still the lace and Louisa commanded perforce his perfect respect and patience and loyalty. Not affiliated with Harvard College. A New England Nun Summary Next A New England Nun "A New England Nun" tells the story of Louisa Ellis, a woman engaged to be married to Joe Dagget but who feels ambivalent because she has loved living alone for the last fifteen years. She would have been loath to confess how more than once she had ripped a seam for the mere delight of sewing it together again. Rothstein, Talia. A New England Nun Summary - www.BookRags.com As a result, he has lived the past fifteen years chained up in a small hut, just as Louisa has spent the same amount of time cloistered in her home. Her inability to imagine a life with Joe confirms her strong desire to stay unmarried. As the village settles in for the evening, the narrator introduces the main character: a young woman named Louisa Ellis. She put the exquisite little stitches into her wedding-garments, and the time went on until it was only a week before her wedding-day. If Louisa Ellis had sold her birthright she did not know it, the taste of the pottage was so delicious, and had been her sole satisfaction for so long. In that length of time much had happened. It also further underscores the pleasure Louisa takes in living alonedoing everything from polishing her tea set to calmly listening to the frogs outside of her window. Thinking they are alone, Joe and Lily confess their feelings for each other. Much of the scholarly analysis of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's work casts her as part of the local color genre, a literary movement with origins in the eighteenth century that depicts regionalism with a focus on authenticity and detailed specificity. As their conversation dies down, Dagget uneasily rearranges the books on Louisa's table. A New England Nun Symbols Next Caesar Caesar Louisa 's dog Caesar symbolizes Louisa's belief that a hermetic life is a peaceful one. Ceasar was a veritable hermit of a dog. After about another hour, Dagget gets up to leave, knocking over Louisa's sewing on the way. She heard his heavy step on the walk, and rose and took off her pink-and-white apron. Louisa had almost the enthusiasm of an artist over the mere order and cleanliness of her solitary home. Hes tracked in a good deal of dust, she murmured. Joe and Louisa are planning to go through with their engagement not out of passion or romantic love, but out of a sense of honor to the promises they made fifteen years ago. Joe Dagget, however, with his good-humored sense and shrewdness, saw him as he was. Again, Louisa displays traditional feminine behavior by sewing stiches into her wedding dress but comes across as an untraditional woman of her time because she would rather live alone than marry. They agree that Lily Dyer is a big help to his mother and that she is an attractive girl. She eats daintily and in a "pecking way," but she has a strong appetite and eats well. PDFs of modern translations of every Shakespeare play and poem. A New England Nun A New England Nun (I) Summary and Analysis It is Joe and Lily. The next day, after doing her housework and meditating by her window, Louisa welcomes Joe into her home. In the summary and analysis, the story revolves around a late-nineteenth-century woman who is at a crossroads in her life. Glasser, Leah Blatt. However, Louisas treasures are her needlework, and sewing. Also a leaf or two of lettuce, which she cut up daintily. Louisa is stunned by what shes just heard. Refine any search. In "A New England Nun," Mary E. Wilkins Freeman illustrates a woman's struggle with the commitment of marriage after waiting fourteen years for her fianc to return from Australia, where he was making money to support her. Cam Garrity. She thought she would keep still in the shadow and let the persons, whoever they might be, pass her. Louisa used china every day something which none of her neighbors did. The story opens on a peaceful afternoon, where Louisa, having just finished working at her needlepoint, goes outside to pick some currants, and then happily steeps herself tea. Their behavior together suggests that they are familiar with each other, but it does not indicate any deep excitement or romance between them. I aint going back on a woman thats waited for me fourteen years, an break her heart.. It was now fourteen years since, in a flood of youthful spirits, he had inflicted that memorable bite, and with the exception of short excursions, always at the end of the chain, under the strict guardianship of his master or Louisa, the old dog had remained a close prisoner. Both Louisa and Joe feel bound by honor to their engagement. Either she was a little disturbed, or his nervousness affected her, and made her seem constrained in her effort to reassure him. (including. Louisa ties a green apron around her waist and puts on a straw hat with a green ribbon. Upon closer reflection, however, the opening paragraph's descriptions give only the broad strokes of the scenery's images. "A New England Nun" opens in the calm, pastoral setting of a New England town in summer. Louisa looked at him with a deprecating smile. This short story, called A New England Nun is written by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. Everything seems to be settling down for the evening, and the setting has an aura of rest and peacefulness. Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman. Complete your free account to request a guide. She looks like a real capable girl. Opposite her, on the other side of the road, was a spreading tree; the moon shone between its boughs, and the leaves twinkled like silver. For example, she didnt make her female characters that way. Lily Dyer is admired for being nice, handsome, and intellectual Shes tall, blond, fair-skinned, and full-figured. Again, Freeman shows Louisa taking pride and joy in the labor she doeshowever simplelike growing herself lettuce and preparing herself a meal. She had listened and assented with the sweet serenity which never failed her, not even when her lover set forth on that long and uncertain journey. They share a tender goodbyewith a warmth that theyd not shown each other in some time.