22 pages • 44 minutes read
Mary Eleanor Wilkins FreemanA New England Nun
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1891A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Caesar
The chained dog, Caesar, symbolizes the passion that Louisa is afraid to show. As the only other masculine character, he aligns with and becomes an extension of Joe. She inherited Caesar from her brother, and for 14 years Louisa has kept the big yellow dog in a tiny doghouse on a chain. Caesar is chained because once, when he was a puppy, he bit the neighbor’s hand. Louisa has never considered letting him off of the chain despite his old age and docility. In fact, Caesar has won a reputation as a vicious dog, and when Louisa has visitors, she cautions them to avoid him.
Only Joe does not fear Caesar: “Joe Dagget, […] with his good-humored sense and shrewdness saw him as he was” (11). He pets Caesar and tells Louisa that it is cruel to keep the dog on a chain. Joe also tells her that he plans to free Caesar after they are married.
The implication is that, if Louisa marries Joe, he will set her passion free, a thought that terrifies Louisa. When she thinks about marrying Joe, she imagines Caesar running through the streets leaving bloody children in his wake (12). Louisa ties her fear of Caesar’s ferociousness to her marriage to Joe. She fears both will bring chaos, pain and disorder into her life. However, by showing Louisa’s fear of Caesar to be unfounded, Freeman suggests that Louisa is magnifying the fear that her marriage poses to her.
Joe’s Mother
Joe Dagget’s mother stands in contrast to Louisa’s mother, who had a cool temperament and was wise and sweet (7). Louisa admired these qualities in her mother, and her personality shows that she successfully emulated them.
Joe’s mother, on the other hand, is overbearing and demanding. She lives with Joe and has refused to leave their home even after Joe and Louisa are married. Joe’s mother has hinted that she does not care for Louisa’s hobby of distilling floral essences, and Louisa envisions Joe and his mother laughing at her “old maiden ways” (9).
Louisa balks at the prospect of caring for Joe’s mother, which would be her responsibility as Joe’s wife. Lily, on the other hand, has no problem caring for Joe’s mother. Louisa’s attitude toward Joe’s mother shows another point on which she and Lily differ and reveals Lily to be the more reasonable mate for Joe.
The 15-Year Engagement
Throughout the story, Freeman emphasizes the remarkable nature of Louisa’s and Joe’s 15-year engagement. The long engagement—and Joe’s 14 years in Australia—are a motif that surfaces every time the subject of marriage arises. The 15 years symbolize both the absurdity of their prospective marriage and the loyalty that each has maintained for the idea of their marriage. Joe is a romantic, and the long years apart continued to fuel his desire to make his fortune and marry the young woman he loves. Louisa had a positive image of marriage in her mind during their years apart, but when each confronts the reality of meeting the other again, they realize that reality has not fulfilled their fantasies. They only rarely exchanged letters while Joe was away, so despite his passion and her patience, it seems that from the beginning, there was not a strong connection between them.
The Linen Seam and Domestic Objects
The only hint of deviousness that Louisa shows is the pleasure she takes in ripping up a seam that she has just sewn for the sheer pleasure of sewing it up again. There is a sexual element in this small act of violence, expressing the pleasure Louisa takes in closing up her sexuality with a neat, orderly thread. Other domestic elements give Louisa sexual pleasure; she experiences “throbs” of triumph at the sight of her polished windows and she “gloat[s] gently” over her orderly drawers. Conversely, when she thinks about Joe’s household, filled with masculine belongings, she is startled and considers the thoughts “indelicate” (10). Just as her household objects represent her virginal femininity, Joe’s home and objects represent his masculinity, which Louisa finds abhorrent. Paradoxically, Louisa finds sensual pleasure in the hermetic nonsexual nature of her life, an autoeroticism that she herself may not even understand.
