A New England Nun

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's A New England Nun is a wonderful story about everyday people, promises and loyalty, and about being true to one's self.  It tells the story of a love affair, an engagement, between Louisa and Joe.  Joe and Louisa fall in love at a young age, become engaged, and Joe takes off to Australia to make his fortune.  Joe doesn't come back for fifteen years.  When he does return, both Joe and Louisa have become different people.

Louisa has lived alone for many years.  Her family died, and she was left with the company of a little dog named Caesar.  She has created a very structured environment for herself, a routine, that she enjoys.  She becomes a bit obsessive with the way things are arranged on a table, and perturbed if Joe tracks dirt into the house.

Though it becomes obvious very quickly that neither want to be married, both are committed to keeping their word and promise to the other.  They are both going to sacrifice their individual happiness for the other, not knowing that both feel the same.  A chance encounter caught between Joe and Lily by an unobserved Louisa reveals to her that they have fallen in love with one another.  She realizes that though he loves Lily, he still plans on marrying her out of loyalty.  When Louisa realizes that he doesn't want to marry her, she becomes encouraged to let him out of the engagement.  She is now free to continue her contented, solitary existence, like a nun.

There is an interesting scene in which she very much fears that Joe will let her little dog Caesar off his leash to roam free.  This idea terrifies Louisa, she wants him to be chained alone in his little hut.  I very much imagine that she is projecting her own fears of leaving her isolated life onto her little dog.  It would be terrifying to her, because she would be terrified of leaving her house and routine.  Many people would look at her life and think she is a prisoner but I think she has really found freedom because she is living the life she created for herself in the way she wants.  Isn't that what freedom really is?

Joe and Lily also gain freedom; freedom to love one another without guilt or fear.  Louisa set them free.  I suppose this isn't a love story after all.  It's a story of finding a life that you truly want and attaining it.