SOURCE: “Subdued Meaning in ‘A New England Nun,’” in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 2, No. 2, Winter, 1965, pp. 124–36.

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.

One of the most beautifully achieved scenes in the American “local color” fiction of the nineteenth century occurs in Mary Wilkins Freeman's “A New England Nun.” The plot of the story is characteristically straightforward and uncomplicated. Louisa Ellis, who has waited fourteen years for her fiancé, Joe Dagget, to return from Australia, “where he had gone to make his fortune,”¹ greets his return with some apprehension. In fourteen years of waiting, Louisa has grown set in her ways. The prospect of immediate marriage fills her, quite understandably, with misgivings. As...