A New England Nun & A Real Life - Essay Example

This message is relayed throughout the stories in the way that the authors describe the mundane activities of their characters, the calmness that Louisa feels after a failed engagement, and in the dissatisfying lives led by Dorrie and Muriel after they are married. Freeman and Munro dedicate sizable portions of their stories to the day-by-day activities of their primary characters, Louisa and Dorrie. Before we are introduced to the plot of either story, or to the men who are catalysts in these women’s lives, we become intimate with the hobbies and little quirks that each woman requires for her peace.

While the sheer amount of detail may at first seem frivolous or irrelevant to the overall plot, the further that the reader gets, the more it becomes clear how vital these behaviors are to well-being of these women (Cutter, pg. 214). Louisa’s mannerisms as she strives to keep her home clean and in order and Dorrie’s age-old habit of picking up fallen walnuts from the ground each autumn are akin to breathing or requiring food and water to live. However, despite the amount of attention that the authors give to the intricate workings of these women’s lives, the necessity of such activities go unnoticed by each woman until they realize that they would have to give them up once married.

“Then there were some peculiar features of her happy solitary life which she would probably be obliged to relinquish altogether [. . .] There was a small chance for such foolish comfort in the future (Freeman, pg. 7).” After Joe, Louisa’s fiance, leaves her home, knocking over her sewing basket, Louisa speculates all that she will have to give up once she and Joe say their wedding vows, including her home, many of her belongings, and her simple happiness. Louisa becomes discomforted at the notion of leaving parts of herself behind.

Similarly, even as her friends were preparing her wedding, Dorrie could be found hidden away in her home, continuing with the activities that had occupied her life. Though she wanted to marry Wilkie and she was intrigued by his attraction to her, Dorrie was reluctant to leave behind her home and the patterns she had developed over time. “‘I can’t leave,’ she said. [. . .] ‘I can’t leave here (Munro, pg. 9).’” What other women might mistake as cold feet was really Dorrie’s fear of giving up a life that was comfortable and familiar.

In Dorrie’s mind, getting married meant losing aspects of herself and her past that were necessities. This realization did not strike Dorrie until a week before her wedding. As she took inventory of her life in those final days of the single life, she recognized how much of herself existed in those small quirks that she had previously taken for granted. By elaborately describing the lifestyles of these women, the authors are able to reveal why marriage seems to them a harrowing prospect. In her short story, Freeman takes her description of Louisa’s lifestyle one step further by including a glimpse into Louisa’s mindset when Joe upsets her sewing basket.

An accident in the eyes of another, this simple mistake of Joe’s allows the reader to see how attached Louisa is to her way of life. Perhaps this is why her easy acceptance of their broken engagement was not as startling as such an event would normally be. “