In the following essay, Shaw describes how Freeman utilized the conventions of mystery and detective fiction as well as elements of the infamous Lizzie Borden murder case in “The Long Arm.”

In the essay below, Meese discusses how Freeman uses conflicting cultural/literary, public/private, and personal/social codes to portray the complexity of the feminine gender. Meese also criticizes early biographers and commentators for misreading Freeman's works as well as misunderstanding their author.

In the following essay, Turkes uses Erik Erickson's psychological development model to evaluate various elderly female characters in Freeman's stories.

In the essay below, Canfield interprets what he sees as the humorous aspects of “A Conflict Resolved,” “The Poetess,” and “A New England Nun.”

In the excerpt below, Fisken considers Freeman's ghost stories, particularly those featuring a lost girl, which she suggests may represent Freeman's ambivalence about her own choice to suppress her nurturing impulses—marriage and family—in favor of an artistic career.

In the following essay, Gardner discusses how the relationships among characters in Freeman's short fiction run counter to prevailing treatments in sentimental literature of the era.

In the essay below, Johnsen explores Freeman's use of cloth and clothing as principal images representing the artist's relationship to society in “An Honest Soul,” “On the Walpole Road,” and “Sister Liddy.”

In the following excerpt, Donovan surveys the various mother-daughter relationships and strong female characters in Freeman's short stories.

In the following essay, Cutter probes Freeman's attitudes toward post-Civil War stereotypes of femininity, focussing on “The Selfishness of Amelia Lamkin.”

In the below essay, Hirsch examines the compulsive behavior of Louisa, the female protagonist of “A New England Nun.” This behavior creates an undercurrent of tension throughout the story, due to which, according to Hirsch, the story transcends local color writing.

In the following essay, Oaks analyzes Freeman's ghost stories, maintaining that they portray the negative consequences possible when individual will overrides social conventions.

In the following essay, Marchalonis focuses on the stories in Understudies and Six Trees, maintaining that Freeman employed an “Other” from the natural world—a tree or an animal—against which she measured the human characters.

In the following essay, Cutter examines the different psychological orientations of the male and female characters in “The Revolt of Mother” as expressed through the characters' use of language.

In the following excerpt, Williams discusses Freeman's characters, particularly the female ones, from a variety of her short stories.

In the following essay, Sherman explicates the goddess imagery in the story “Christmas Jenny” from A New England Nun.

In the below essay, Daniel interprets Freeman's use of enclosure imagery.

In the following essay, McElrath explores the four-phase narrative structure in “The Revolt of Mother” that culminates in an ending that is “vintage Howellsian realism” and literary artifice.

In the following excerpt, Koppelman draws parallels between Freeman's life and her uncollected story “Two Friends.”