1、Mary E.Wilkins Freeman (1852-1930)lShe was born in Randolph,Massachusetts,and attended Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley,Massachusetts,from 18701871.Freemans parents were orthodox Congregationalists,causing her to have a very strict childhood.Religious constraints play a key role in some of her
2、works.She passed the greater part of her life in Massachusetts and Vermont.Freeman herself married late in life,wedding Dr.Charles Freeman when she was forty-nine.After an initial period of harmony,the marriage ended in separation when she had her husband institutionalized for alcoholism.Achievement
3、slIn 1926 she was awarded the William Dean Howells Gold Medal for Fiction by the American Academy of Letters,and later that year she was inducted into the prestigious National Institute for Arts and Letters.She died in Metuchen and was interred in Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains,New Jersey.Primar
4、y WorkslA Humble Romance and Other Stories.1887.lA New England Nun and Other Stories.1891.lPembroke.1894.lSilence,and Other Stories.1898.lThe Revolt of Mother and Other Stories.1974.The feature of her workslNarrated in a firm and objective manner with occasional subtle undertones of humor and irony,
5、Freemans stories were deft character studies of somehow exceptional people who,trapped by poverty or other handicaps in sterile,restrictive circumstances,react in various ways against their situations.Her use of New England village and countryside settings and dialects placed her stories in the loca
6、l color movement,and her work thereby enjoyed an added vogue;nevertheless,she avoided the sentimentality then current in popular literature.lWhile Freemans successful career afforded her financial security and a great deal of autonomy,her best fiction focuses on the plight of women whose lives are b
7、ounded by poverty and the social constraints imposed on them by their strict religious beliefs and their position as women.Fascinated by the impact of traditional Puritan values of submissiveness,frugality,and self-denial on New England culture,Freeman often portrayed characters who create obstacles
8、 to their own happiness by their strict adherence to Calvinist morality.lIn other stories,however,she explored the rebellions and triumphs of seemingly meek women,depicting their strategies for gaining and maintaining control over their domestic situations with humor and sensitivity.She provided unf
9、linching portraits of both the difficulties of spinsterhood and the often oppressive power dynamics that structured nineteenth-century marriage.A New England NunHistorical ContextlReligion and EconomicslMary Wilkins Freeman wrote most of her best-known short stories in the 1880s and 1890s.They provi
10、de a unique snapshot of a particular time and place in American history.The small towns of post-Civil War New England were often desolate places.The war itself,combined with urbanization,industrialization,and westward expansion,had taken most of the young able-bodied men out of the region.The remain
11、ing population was largely female and elderly.Women like Louisa Ellis,who waited many years for husbands,brothers,fathers and boyfriends to return from the West or other places they had gone to seek jobs,were not uncommon.The area was suffering from economic depression and many were forced to leave
12、to support themselves and their families.There were many widows from the war,too,often living hand-to-mouth and trying to keep up appearances.Characters lThe main character in the story is Louisa Ellis.The plot focuses on her desire for remaining alone and maintaining her lifestyle.This character is
13、 classified as a round one,more individualized and belonging to the everyday world.Louisa can be defined as an independent and organized woman.lThe secondary characters are Joe Dagget,Lily Dyer,Joes mother and the community.They all are classified as flat characters,constructed by a dominant trait.P
14、lotlA New England Nun is a story about the heroine who learned to live a solitary life,despite her engagement of fifteen years to a fortune hunter.Freeman begins the novel with Louisa Ellis sewing in her sitting room.The lateness of the afternoon causes her to perform chores throughout the house.She
15、 is meticulous as she prepares her tea,cooks a meal,feeds the dog,and tidies the house.She is preparing for Joes return.Joe Dagget is her fianc of fifteen years,fourteen of which he has spent seeking fortune.lAs she waits,she thinks about the solitary ways she has adopted during the years spent with
16、 Joe.Freeman introduces two characters who dont really know each other.Every time they come together,the meeting is awkward and forced.Joes presence interrupts Louisas peaceful solitude.He brings imbalance.By the end of the story,Louisa discovers that Joe is in love with someone else and she calls o
17、ff the engagement.Although she weeps at the loss,she is grateful to the idea that she doesnt have to give up her personal domain to a marriage with Joe.Narration lHeterodiegetic narrator who does know the story and thoughts of all the characters,and tells a story different to her own.lNeutral omnisc
18、ience-3rd person narrator who has voice and knows everything about characters lives,dreams,thoughts and intentions.lThere is no direct authorial intrusion:the narrator just tells the story and the reasoning of her characters mind,and does not give her own opinion about the matter.Symbols lLouisas pe
19、t:they are symbols of Louisas captivity.Louisas pets,like her,are living lives that are different from the way they would exist naturally.Thus,as the dog is chained and the canary is caged,Louisa is confined at her home voluntarily,and rejects her natural inclinations to motherhood.Symbols lThe yell
20、ow canary:It symbolizes the way how Louisa is seen by Joe,the woman is considered to me a mere decorative object with the only function of being wife and mother.Moreover,the canarys wild fluttering when Joe appears reflects Louisas anxiety over change.For Louisa Joe supposes a threat to her security
21、 and serenity.lThe dog Caesar represents the way in which Louisa sees herself.Caesar has been chained for the same period of time that Joe has been away.This fact leads us to interpret that both Caesar and Louisa are tied to something because of a mistake that they committed.Caesar bit a neighbor,so
22、 its punishment consists on remain chained;Louisa was engaged,so she had to be tied to this promise and renounce to her independence.lThe author also emphasizes the hermit-like existence that Caesar endures under the worried eye of Louisa(who is also an hermit).The fear she feels of taking the dog o
23、ut is linked to her fear for the unknown.Thus,she prefers to stay at home instead of going to a strange house and changing her customs.lLouisas home:it is linked to the idea of harmony,order and serenity.The house represents the known.Discussionl1.What is the structure of this short story?l2.Why doe
24、s Louisa wear three aprons at the same time?And what does that indicate?l3.What details will foreshadow the ending of this short story?tired farmers lIt was late in the afternoon,and the light was waning.There was a difference in the look of the tree shadows out in the yard.Somewhere in the distance
25、 cows were lowing and a little bell was tinkling;now and then a farm-wagon tilted by,and the dust flew;some blue-shirted laborers with shovels over their shoulders plodded past;little swarms of flies were dancing up and down before the peoples faces in the soft air.There seemed to be a gentle stir a
26、rising over everything for the mere sake of subsidence-a very premonition of rest and hush and night.lThis soft diurnal commotion was over Louisa Ellis also.She had been peacefully sewing at her sitting-room window all the afternoon.Now she quilted her needle carefully into her work,which she folded
27、 precisely,and laid in a basket with her thimble and thread and scissors.Louisa Ellis could not remember that ever in her life she had mislaid one of these little feminine appurtenances,which had become,from long use and constant association,a very part of her personality.Louisa Ellis What is Louisa
28、 doing in her garden?What is Louisa doing in her garden?lLouisa tied a green apron round her waist,and got out a flat straw hat with a green ribbon.Then she went into the garden with a little blue crockery bowl,to pick some currants for her tea.After the currants were picked she sat on the back door
29、-step and stemmed them,collecting the stems carefully in her apron,and afterwards throwing them into the hen-coop.She looked sharply at the grass beside the step to see if any had fallen there.lCeasar!she called.Ceasar!Ceasar!lThere was a little rush,and the clank of a chain,and a large yellow-and-w
30、hite dog appeared at the door of his tiny hut,which was half hidden among the tall grasses and flowers.Louisa patted him and gave him the corn-cakes.Then she returned to the house and washed the tea-things,polishing the china carefully.The twilight had deepened;the chorus of the frogs floated in at
31、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.Csar was a veritable hermit of a dog.Csar wa
32、s a veritable hermit of a dog.lLouisas favorite dog“Csar.Joe DaggetJoe DaggetlIn about half an hour Joe Dagget came.She heard his heavy step on the walk,and rose and took off her pink-and-white apron.Under that was still another-white linen with a little cambric edging on the bottom;that was Louisas
33、 company apron.She never wore it without her calico sewing apron over it unless she had a guest.She had barely folded the pink and white one with methodical haste and laid it in a table-drawer when the door opened and Joe Dagget entered.Yellow canarylHe seemed to fill up the whole room.A little yell
34、ow canary that had been asleep in his green cage at the south window woke up and fluttered wildly,beating his little yellow wings against the wires.He always did so when Joe Dagget came into the room.lGood-evening,said Louisa.She extended her hand with a kind of solemn cordiality.lShe placed a chair
35、 for him,and they sat facing each other,with the table between them.He sat bolt-upright,toeing out his heavy feet squarely,glancing with a good-humored uneasiness around the room.She sat gently erect,folding her slender hands in her white-linen lap.lBeen a pleasant day,remarked Dagget.Louisas Louisa
36、s BehaviorBehavior Dialogue between Louisa and JoeDialogue between Louisa and JoelHe was not very young,but there was a boyish look about his large face.Louisa was not quite as old as he,her face was fairer and smoother,but she gave people the impression of being older.lI suppose shes a good deal of
37、 help to your mother,she said,further.lI guess she is;I dont know how motherd get along without her,said Dagget,with a sort of embarrassed warmth.lShe looks like a real capable girl.Shes pretty-looking too,remarked Louisa.lYes,she is pretty fair looking.Joe escaped from her houseJoe escaped from her
38、 houselWhen Joe Dagget was outside he drew in the sweet evening air with a sigh,and felt much as an innocent and perfectly well-intentioned bear might after his exit from a china shop.lLouisa,on her part,felt much as the kind-hearted,long-suffering owner of the china shop might have done after the e
39、xit of the bear.Lily Dyer AppearsLily Dyer Appears lThats Lily Dyer,thought Louisa to herself.The voice embodied itself in her mind.She saw a girl tall and full-figured,with a firm,fair face,looking fairer and firmer in the moonlight,her strong yellow hair braided in a close knot.A girl full of a ca
40、lm 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.a full moon that nighta full moon t
41、hat nightlThere was a full moon that night.About nine oclock Louisa strolled down the road a little way.There were harvest-fields on either hand,bordered by low stone walls.Luxuriant clumps of bushes grew beside the wall,and trees-wild cherry and old apple-trees-at intervals.Presently Louisa sat dow
42、n on the wall and looked about her with mildly sorrowful reflectiveness.Tall shrubs of blueberry and meadow-sweet,all woven together and tangled with blackberry vines and horsebriers,shut her in on either side.She had a little clear space between them.Louisa became a nunLouisa became a nunlShe gazed
43、 ahead through a long reach of future days strung together like pearls in a rosary,every one like the others,and all smooth and flawless and innocent,and her heart went up in thankfulness.Outside was the fervid summer afternoon;the air was filled with the sounds of the busy harvest of men and birds and bees;there were halloos,metallic clatterings,sweet calls,and long hummings.Louisa sat,prayerfully numbering her days,like an uncloistered nun.
