A New England Nun

“Louisa used china every day—something which none of her neighbors did. They whispered about it among themselves. Their daily tables were laid with common crockery, their sets of best china stayed in the parlor closet, and Louisa Ellis was no richer nor better bred than they.”

The passage provides a rare perspective on how Louisa’s neighbors view her. Louisa only interacts with Joe in the story, so Freeman’s omniscient narrator fills in this information for the reader. Louisa’s neighbors perceive her everyday use of china as pretentious because they believe she is implying she is better than them. Regardless of whether this is true, her everyday use of china is another quality that sets her apart from her community.

“The twilight deepened; the chorus of the frogs floated in at the open window wonderfully loud and shrill, and once in a while a long sharp drone from a tree-toad pierced it. Louisa took off her green gingham apron, disclosing a shorter one of pink and white print. She lighted her lamp, and sat down again with her sewing.”

Mood is paramount in Freeman’s writing. Her scene setting always begins with a description of the natural world before transitioning to the action. The mood Freeman creates in this passage is lulling, attuning the reader to the protagonist’s state of mind. Freeman includes unexpected moments of surprise; the reader likely finds it strange that Louisa is wearing another apron under her first one. There is humor in the description, and it subtly jars the calming prose that preceded it.

“‘[Lily] looks like a real capable girl. She’s pretty-looking too,’ remarked Louisa. ‘Yes, she is pretty fair looking.’”

Freeman’s work is part of the local color genre, which portrays the culture of a particular region, including its speech patterns. Freeman conveys Louisa and Joe’s speech as they would have spoken it, which brings realism and authenticity to the prose. Mark Twain is another author of this era who famously wrote in the local color genre.

“[S]he set the lamp down on the floor, and began sharply examining the carpet. She even rubbed her fingers over it, and looked at them. ‘He’s tracked in a good deal of dust,’ she murmured. ‘I thought he must have.’”

After Joe leaves, Louisa must straighten the items he disturbed and bring her dwelling back to its status quo. Here, the reader sees the meticulousness of her scrutiny, which is similar to the way she looked down to make sure no currant stems had fallen out of her apron near the steps when she went to throw the stems in the hencoop. This passage shows Louisa’s state of mind when Joe visits. She does not see Joe as a person, merely as a source of disorder that she must constantly counteract. The narrative has shown that Joe is a bit heavy-handed, but he is nevertheless a nice person, and despite his discomfort, he is willing to accept Louisa as she is. She, on the other hand, cannot accept him, which shows the extent to which she has retreated into her own world.

“Joe, buoyed up as he was by his sturdy determination, broke down a little at the last, Louisa kissed him with a mild blush, and said good-by. ‘It won’t be for long,’ poor Joe said, huskily; but it was for fourteen years.’”

Freeman devotes several passages to developing Joe’s point of view. This scene shows the moment of Joe and Louisa’s parting before he leaves for Australia. Freeman’s description “poor Joe” implies that either he was foolish to have gotten engaged to Louisa in the first place, or that if he had chosen to stay, they would have had a much different future together.

“Fifteen years ago she had been in love with him—at least she considered herself to be.”

Louisa’s old feelings for Joe contrast with the consternation she experiences around him in the present. In this line, Freeman suggests that young Louisa may not have truly been in love with Joe or did not understand what it meant to be in love. It is possible the line hints that Louisa did not change when Joe went away but was able to express the hermetic, nonsexual inclinations she had from the beginning.

“Joe had made some extensive and quite magnificent alterations to his house. 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.”

Louisa only imagines that chaos and squalor will meet her when she enters Joe’s household and that there will not be any room for her precious items. In reality, given this description, it is possible that Louisa would have had plenty of space in a well-appointed, well-ordered environment. 

“It was true that in a measure she could take them with her, but, robbed of their old environments, they would appear in such new guises that they would almost cease to be themselves.”

This is the only moment in which Louisa admits to herself that nothing would prevent her from bringing her treasured possessions with her into Joe’s household, but her fear that the objects would transform by sheer proximity to maleness reveals how deeply Louisa shrinks from sexual contact and from upsetting her established order.

“Never had Caesar since his early youth watched a woodchuck’s hole; never had he known the delights of a stray bone at a neighbor’s kitchen door. And it was all on account of a sin committed when hardly out of his puppyhood.”

Freeman parallels the dog Caesar’s joyless life with Louisa’s since an action he took in his youth prompted a lifelong punishment. The passage continues to describe Caesar’s old age and docility, signaling to the reader that there is no reason he should be kept chained in the yard. Joe even tells Louisa it is cruel, but her fear and the neighborhood’s fear override the reality of the situation. Caesar’s case, as well as Louisa’s, are commentaries on the emphasis that Victorian, Puritan New England places on the past rather than on the present, even when the two contradict each other.

“A girl full of calm rustic strength and bloom, with a masterful way which might have beseemed a princess. Lily Dyer was a favorite with the village folk; she had just the qualities to arouse the admiration. She was good and handsome and smart. Louisa had often heard her praises sounded.”

Lily is the opposite of Louisa in many ways. The people in the village admire Lily, whereas they disapprove of Louisa. Lily has vitality and strength while Louisa is timid and avoids activity. Freeman’s characterization of Lily shows that she has all the qualities that Louisa lacks. The contrast is not necessarily a judgment on Louisa, it simply shows how different she is from those around her.

“Louisa Ellis had never known that she had any diplomacy in her, but when she came to look for it that night she found it, although meek of its kind, among her little feminine weapons.”

It is telling that Freeman uses the phrase ‘little feminine weapons’ to describe the range of Louisa’s methods of interaction. Diplomacy is often considered a positive characteristic, but in Louisa’s hands, it takes on a passive aggressive tone.

“Louisa, all alone by herself that night, wept a little, she hardly knew why […].”

After the story’s climax, in which Louisa breaks the engagement, she cries as a release of emotions, a combination of relief and loss. However, she is not in touch with her emotions. This passage parallels the beginning of Louisa and Joe’s relationship, when Louisa mistook the feelings she did or did not have for Joe as love. The only feeling she has been sure of all this time is her love of solitude.

“Now the little canary might turn itself into a peaceful yellow ball night after night, and have no need to wake and flutter with wild terror against its bars. Louisa could sew linen seams, and distil roses, and dust and polish and fold away in lavender, as long as she listed. That afternoon she sat with her needle-work at the window, and felt fairly steeped in peace.”

Here, the verb “list” is an old usage that means to want or like, i.e., Louisa can live her chosen lifestyle for as long as she likes. Her feeling of peace is enviable because her existence, at least on the surface, is free of stress. However, because Freeman has indicated more than once that Louisa is not in touch with her feelings, other less fulfilling emotions, or even fears, could be motivating her choice.