Analysis Of A New England Nun

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“A New England Nun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman illustrates a woman’s struggle with the commitment of marriage after waiting fourteen years for her fiancee to return from Australia, where he stayed to support her. Freeman’s character, Louisa, constantly works on domestic house activities alone in her home. Joe’s entrance caused disruption in Louisa’s organized life. Louisa discovers that life is not what is seems and decides to become a nun. Although many feminists at the time rejected domestic house chores as a way to free themselves, Freeman shows her character embracing her domestic chores as a way to indulge in her solitude.
Mary E. Wilkins Freeman wrote about deceptions through the lives of women in many of her stories. A critic magazine conducting a public opinion poll established Freeman as the best cultivating American womanhood author. According to Larry A. Carlson, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman was born in Randolph, Massachusetts on October 31, 1852 and passed away in Metuchen, New Jersey on March 13, 1930. After graduating high school, she moved to Vermont with her parents and began teaching school in 1873, after an unsuccessful attempt she began writing poetry and short stories; her first two collections of short stories for adults, A Humble Romance, and Other Stories and A New England Nun, and Other Stories, generally considered her finest work, established her reputation as a professional writer. She married Dr. Charles Freeman in 1902 and moved to his home in New Jersey, where she resided for the remainder of her life. Personal tragedy marked her later years; she began suffering from deafness in 1909, and she was legally separated from husband in 1922 as a result of his destructive alcoholism. Among her later works are t...

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...itics misinterpret the main argument of the text, they try to unsuccessful read the text, and do not understand the knowledge of the traditional notions of gender that these characters are portraying and interpreting (483-484).
“A New England Nun” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, Freeman tells the story of Louisa Ellis, a women who is beyond her own control, becomes the answer to individualism. Throughout her entire life Louisa learns to value her solitary life. After being engaged for a short amount of time, Joe ends up leaving Louisa for another woman after coming back from Australia. Adhering to the belief’s in our society that a woman must be married to a man. However, it is this socially accepted situation which ends up teaching Louisa to love her freedom and independence. Freeman shows her character embracing her domestic chores as a way to indulge her solitude.

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