Analysis Of Mary Wilkins Freeman's A New England Nun

During the early nineteenth century a new idea of what a woman should be was beginning to develop in society. This new idea was called The Cult of True Womanhood, sometimes also known as The Cult of Domesticity, and it laid out a set of goals for the ‘ideal’ woman. These goal were domesticity, piety, purity, and submissiveness. Even though these ideas pervaded the media of much of middle and upper-class society at the time, there were still female authors who did not take so kindly to them. One of these authors was Mary Wilkins Freeman, and in her short story “A New England Nun”, she uses her character Louisa Ellis to subtly protest The Cult of True Womanhood. Beginning with domesticity, according to Professor Catherine Lavender’s essay, “Notes on the Cult of Domesticity and True Womanhood”, this element consists of a woman finding fulfillment in the home, taking care of …show more content…
In the story, Louisa does maintain her home quite well. She always has some sort of housework to do, whether that be cleaning, prepping food, or making things for her home. However, she deviates from the ideal of domesticity because she is not doing this for other people. She has no children and appears to be slightly put off by her fiancé. All of this is done for herself. It is most evident when she is making her tea: Louisa was slow and still in her movements; it took her a long time to prepare her tea; but when ready it was set forth with as much grace as if she had been a veritable guest to her own self. The little square table stood exactly in the center of the kitchen, and was covered with starched linen cloth whose border pattern of flowers glistened. Louisa had a damask napkin on her tea-tray, where were arranged a cut-glass tumbler full of teaspoons, a silver cream-pitcher, a china sugar-bowl, and one pink china cup and saucer. Louisa used china every day – something which none of her neighbors did. They whispered about it among themselves