22 pages • 44 minutes read
A New England Nun
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Character Analysis
Louisa Ellis
Louisa is the story’s protagonist. Her age is unspecified, but given the length of her engagement, she is likely around 30 years old. Freeman writes that she gave the impression of being older than Joe, whom Freeman characterizes as “not very young” (4). Louisa’s looks were not the issue: her skin is “smoother and fairer,” but her strict nature does not express youthful vitality. Louisa lives in the house she inherited after her mother passed away. She inherited her dog Caesar after her brother passed away. All the things in Louisa’s life belong to the past. She even believes Caesar, who is old and fat, to be ferocious because he bit the neighbor when he was a puppy, 14 years ago. Louisa is true to an engagement promise she made 14 years in the past, even though much has changed in the interim.
Louisa’s primary characteristic is a need to maintain order. She folds her sewing work just so, puts on her aprons carefully, and sets her tea out as if for a guest (2). Referring to Louisa as her own guest implies that she enjoys her own company, even to the exclusion of others.
Just as Louisa loves quiet orderliness, she fears chaos. She keeps Caesar chained in the backyard in his doghouse, even though he is unlikely to harm anyone. She keeps her pet canary in its cage so that it never has a chance to flutter around the room. To Louisa, marriage to Joe represents the total destruction of her way of life, and as the wedding day draws nearer, she laments the joys of her own life that she will have to abandon. She also increasingly fears the reality of sexual intercourse, which Freeman expresses symbolically through the aversion Louisa has for all Joe’s masculine traits.
Even though Louisa is prickly, she is kind. As much as she dreads her approaching marriage, her values and her consideration for what she believes are Joe’s feelings prevent her from breaking off the engagement. In the end, she is relieved to have an excuse to exit the situation gracefully.
Joe Dagget
Joe is Louisa’s fiancé and the story’s antagonist. Joe is not the antagonist because he has harmful intentions toward Louisa but because he stands in the way of her achieving her goals, which are to remain single and maintain her way of life. Freeman describes Joe as seeming “to fill the whole room” when he visits Louisa (3). This indicates that he is a large man, but also that, to Louisa, he is larger than life. Joe is good-humored even when he is uncomfortable sitting in Louisa’s orderly living room. He is boyish looking, with a large face and build (3). He is a farmer, and when he visits Louisa, he talks about the haying work he has been doing all day, showing that he leads a rugged, active lifestyle. Though Joe believed himself to still be in love with Louisa when he returned, he soon realizes that his passion is directed toward someone else. Joe represents masculinity, boldness, openness, and passion. All the things that Louisa fears.
Louisa and Joe’s engagement lasted 15 years because Joe wanted to make his fortune before they got married. He went to Australia, and it took him 14 years to acquire whatever amount of wealth or stability he desired to feel secure about marrying his fiancée. Freeman never tells the reader exactly what Joe’s “fortune” was, but his success in Australia is plausible, given the country’s economic history at the time.
In the late 19th century, Australia experienced an economic boom that provided lucrative jobs for tradespeople. Australia was part of the British Empire and had better labor laws and unions than in other parts of the world, including the United States. The boom ended in 1891, when Australia experienced a great economic depression. This would have been the year that Joe returned to the United States because Australia no longer offered any economic opportunities. Freeman writes that “[h]e would have stayed fifty years if it had taken so long, and come home feeble and tottering, or never come home at all, to marry Louisa” (6). Freeman may be implying Joe enjoyed being in Australia more than in New England or, had the economic crash not happened, Joe would have stayed and continued to amass wealth.
Joe is in love with Lily Dyer, the woman who cares for his ailing mother. Joe and Lily are much better suited to each other than Joe and Louisa. They share the rugged vitality that Louisa lacks. Freeman does not reveal whether Joe marries Lily after Louisa breaks the engagement, but the reader can guess that he will. In the end, each character gets what they desire most.
Lily Dyer
Lily is the story’s catalyst. She is Joe’s mother’s caretaker. Joe’s mother is described as old and domineering, so Lily must have a hearty spirit if she is able to handle her well. She is attractive, and Freeman describes her as “tall and full-figured, with a firm, fair face” (13). She falls in love with Joe, but like him, she is ready to deny her feelings out of a sense of honor. She has decided to leave town to spare herself the pain of seeing him married, though she denies that she will fret over a married man. When Joe tells Lily that he hopes she finds happiness with someone else, she retorts that she will never marry because she “ain’t the sort of a girl to feel this way twice” (15).
By giving Lily a chance to speak in the story, rather than only being spoken about, Freeman lets the reader know that Lily has true feelings for Joe, and it is not simply an infatuation. This helps Louisa understand the stakes of marrying Joe when she overhears their conversation. Louisa is not mean spirited, and though she does not particularly care about Lily, she would not want to marry Joe knowing that he would be unhappy. Lily is the plot’s catalyst because, without her speaking up, Louisa would not have known that breaking the engagement would not break Joe’s heart.
Lily is also Louisa’s double. Like Joe, Lily represents strength and vitality. We know that Lily is caring and capable because she tends to Joe’s mother. Her name evokes purity. Lily is no less virginal than Louisa, which was a required trait for unmarried women at the time, but she does not close herself off from the world. Lily is a much more suitable mate for Joe than Louisa, and Freeman includes Lily in the story to show just how disastrous a marriage between Louisa and Joe would have been.
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