Essay About Symbolism Of A Sweet Love Wind And Much Care

A New England Nun
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Mary Wilkins Freeman was born, raised and spent the majority of her
life in Puritan rural New England. This scene had a huge impact on her
writing. Most of her novels and short stories had the ability to depict that
lifestyle perfectly. One of the best examples of this is her story “A New
England Nun.” (Fiction)
The main characters in this story are Louisa Ellis and Joe Dagget.
Other important characters are Caesar, the dog, and Lily Dyer. Louisa is
described as very dainty, precise, and methodical. She lives alone in her
small house and rarely goes to town. When we first meet her, she is sewing
her wedding dress. When she gets up to make tea, she places her things down
with much care. She puts on a green apron over her pink one. She uses china
everyday when most people in the village don’t even have any. But she
doesn’t hold herself up on a pedestal. She does these rituals not for necessity,
but for pleasure. When she sews, by hand, she likes to sew a seam and rip it
out for the pure gratification of stitching it back up again. She also enjoys
making essential oils form the fruits and flowers in her garden. She does not
do this for money but to have such nice things in her home. She is the essence
peacefulness and calmness. (Literature)
Her exact opposite is Joe Dagget. He has been engaged to be married
to Louisa for the last fourteen years. He has been in Australia making his
fortune to bring back to his bride-to-be. Although we don’t know exactly what
he was doing, we are lead to believe that it is a very masculine, dirty job. He
is the same. He is very rugged and always slightly dusty. Although he has a
rough exterior, on the inside he is a loving, caring, loyal man. It is made clear
from our first encounter of Joe and Louisa. Even if it was uncomfortable and
stiff, he still comes every day. Early on in the story, the author uses the
symbolism of a sweet love wind to describe their feelings towards each other.
Louisa’s “love song” was very weak. It was not angry, or pathetic, or lonely,
or longing. It had “never more than murmured.” As opposed to Joe’s song,
which was loud, strong and robust. But his song “had another name.” That is
where Lily Dyer comes in. (Literature)
Lily Dyer is the care giver of Joe’s mother. Towards the end of the
story we find out that Joe is in love with her, but will stay faithful and honest
to Louisa, despite their feelings for each other. She is described as the
opposite of Louisa. She is strong and kind of manly. Everyone likes her and
she is a well accepted and has a high reputation in the town. This love
scandal is the external conflict in this story. But the real conflict is how
Louisa reacts to finding out. She simply lets Joe go. She is actually surprised
by how easy it was and how little she felt. We knew she wasn’t going to
marry Joe before their conversation. The day after she found out, she did all
of her daily rituals except for sewing her wedding dress. (Literature)
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