An Analysis of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's A New England Nun

One of the most common and important themes in women's literature is the idea of freedom and autonomy. Because the need and want for independence from men was a central issue in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, female authors often focused on these issues in their writing. These types of themes were most often expressed in the form of a strong willed character, normally a feisty or scandalous woman in order to show the contrast between a dependent woman and one that is independent. This is not so true for the character of Louisa in A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.
Louisa, though mostly soft spoken and quite the opposite of scandalous, loves her independence. In the fourteen years she spent waiting for Joe Dagget to return to her, Louisa had both grown up and had grown accustomed to doing things in her own way. She had become very comfortable with her life and with herself. When Joe came back (unexpectedly), Louisa was understandably conflicted. She was, of course, set in her ways and was not prepared to uproot her life for Joe (or anybody!). Louisa was also quite unhappy with the prospect of leaving her own home, which she had set up to her liking. Freeman shows this through Louisa's internal worries: '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. So Louisa must leave hers. Every morning, rising and going about among her neat maidenly possessions, she felt as one looking her last upon the faces of dear friends'. Louisa was not only comfortable with her life, but was happy with it as well. She had become completely content in the life that was essentially a product of her being abandoned by Joe for so long.

Louisa also knew that she was to lose her independence not only to Joe, but to his elderly mother. She would no longer be focused only on herself and her dog but on Joe and his mother as well. Louisa feared losing the simple things in her life that made her happy just in doing them, such as sewing a seam. She knew that Joe's mother would find these things foolish and that, likely, Joe would agree and she would be forced to quit doing these little things that made her happy. Later in her thoughts, Louisa thinks 'Joe's mother, domineering, shrewd old matron that she was even in her old age, and very likely even Joe himself, with his honest masculine rudeness, would laugh and frown down all these pretty but senseless old maiden ways'.
 The problem for Louisa is that she had come to define herself by her independence, an independence that she only acquired after having been left behind and alone for so long. As she thought about finally marrying Joe Dagget, Louisa began to fear losing the stable and comfortable life that she had created for herself, as she had long since given up on the prospect of actually marrying him. 'She had visions so startling that she half repudiated them as indelicate, of coarse masculine belongings strewn about in endless litter; of dust and disorder arising necessarily from a coarse masculine presence in the midst of all this delicate harmony In her mind, Joe would only disrupt the peace and happiness she had discovered. In marrying Joe, Louisa felt that she would be losing herself, her independence that she had found through solitude and her 'senseless,' 'maidenly' tasks.

Joe's return had taken away Louisa's peace of mind and her freedom. Both bound by a sense of duty to one another, neither Louisa nor Joe would back down from the promise they had made so many years ago, despite the fact neither of them wished to keep this promise. Louisa was only able to regain her freedom after overhearing a conversation between Joe and Lily Dyer, one that would break the chains of duty for all involved. Although Louisa had given up a 'normal' married life, she could not have been happier. What Louisa had come to want was her own life, determined by her own mind, and that alone would bring her the independence and freedom that she had come to love and by which she defined herself.

Reference

Ward, Candace, ed. Great Short Stories by American Women. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 'A New England Nun.' Dover Publications, 1996.