摘 要

玛丽·威尔金斯·弗里曼（1852-1930）是19世纪末20世纪初著名的乡土女性作家。在其代表作《新英格兰修女》中，她生动地刻画出主人公路易莎矛盾的人物性格。路易莎是保守又传统的：最突出的表现在于她同意母亲为她定下的与裘的婚约，在十四年的等待中她始终保持忠贞。然而她又是独立且进步的：她热爱让自己舒适的精致的独身生活；她对裘以及结婚后的生活有着排斥和恐惧。

本文主要分别从路易莎内心保守和进步这两种声音着手，分析同时存在也有交集的这两种声音是如何影响着路易莎的心理，行为和决定，解释路易莎存在矛盾的心理和人格的原因。文章第一部分绪论，包括小说的内容，目前国内外研究现状。第二部分探讨了社会环境对路易莎形成传统思想的影响，西塞和金丝雀的形象，以及路易莎与裘的关系状况。第三部分分析了路易莎不默守陈规，作为一个理智的女性同时又具有女性独有的细腻情感，最后拒绝了这段婚约。最终进步的声音占了上风，她听从了自己内心的坚守。第四部分分析了原因。第五部分是结论：路易莎是一个值得敬佩的女性形象。

关键词：新英格兰修女；两种声音；保守；进步

Abstract

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman is one of the foremost local colorist writers in the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. In her representative short story A New England Nun, she vividly depicts the protagonist Louisa’s paradoxical personality. Louisa is conservative and conventional: her faithful waiting for Joe for fourteen years is one of the most inevitable evidence, because the marriage with Joe is arranged by her mother. However, she is independent and progressive: she loves her lonely exquisite way of life that can make her feel comfortable. She is horrified to get married with Joe and fearful about her marriage life.

This paper starts with the analysis of Louisa’s two voices from her inner world: conservative and progressive. Then goes on to explore the two voices that co-exist and interact with each other and how the two voices affect Louisa’s mental activities, behavior, and decisions with the aim of explaining Louisa's contradictory psychology and personality.

The first part is the introduction, including the author as well as the short novel itself, literature review and researches home and abroad. The second part discusses the influence of social environment on Louisa’s traditional thoughts, the image of Caesar and Canary, and the relationship with Joe. From these three aspects, the calling of conservation reveals. The third part analyzes Louisa as a non-conformist. And being a sensible woman, she has delicate emotions and thoughts. She refuses the engagement finally. In the end the voice of progress prevails, and she finally chooses to listen to her heart. Part four detects the reasons. Part five is the conclusion: Louisa is an admirable woman.

Key Words: A New England Nun, two voices, conservation, progress

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 The Voice of Conservation 3

2.1 The social environment 3

2.2 With Caesar and Canary 3

2.3 With Joe Dagget 4

3 The Voice of Progress 6

3.1 Louisa as a non-conformist 6

3.2 Louisa as a sensible and sensitive woman 7

4 The Victory of Individualism 9

4.1 The breakup of engagement with Joe 9

4.2 Listening to the voice of progress 10

5 Conclusion 12

References 13

Acknowledgements 14

Conservative and Progressive: Two Voices are calling

An Analysis on Louisa in A New England Nun

1 Introduction

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, one of the foremost local colorist writers in the end of nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, focuses on New England village and rural life. Meantime, as an outstanding female writer, Mary Freeman inevitably concerns about the living condition of women at that time and in turn these observations become her writing material. She sought to demonstrate her values as a feminist: during the time which she was writing, she did this in unconventional ways. For example, she diverged from making her female characters weak and in need of help which was a common trope in literature. Through characters such as Louisa in her short story: A New England Nun, Freeman challenges contemporary ideas concerning female roles, values, and relationships in society. In A New England Nun, the protagonist Louisa Ellis lives in a quiet home in the New England countryside. She is known for her cool sense and even temperament. Her world is her home, and everything from her aprons to her china has a use and purpose in her every day rhythm. She is engaged to Joe Dagget for fourteen years while he is off to Australia to make his fortune. However, after hearing the discussion between Joe and Lily about their affection, she resolves to “keep her inheritance” and disengage herself from her long-standing engagement. In the end, she is content to spend her life as a spinster. Louisa is independent and individualistic, still she is restrained by the Puritanism and patriarchy. Louisa waits for Joe for fourteen years without knowing whether they love each other or not, and it demonstrates her surrender to the traditional and conservative Puritan society. However, she relieves herself by the pursuit of beauty and devotion to exquisite everyday-life and finally refuses the marriage with Joe and continues living in a quiet life without any misery.

The image of Louisa as well as the theme on feminism has been discussed and analyzed in some degree：Yuegui Zhang examines landscape as a an important element of space in A New England Nun to present a theme. In this short story, landscape divides itself into natural landscape, domestic landscape and then turns to social landscape (Zhang, 2017). Although she points out the two voices in Louisa, the emphasis is put on the threefold landscapes and the theme. Also there are many researches on the artistic expression techniques like the symbolism analysis in this short story (Li amp; Wang, 2017). However, the topic or analysis on the character itself seldom touches upon. So this paper aims to delicately analyse the character of Louisa, especially the two contradictory forces that direct the way to her life pursuit and life style. Compared with the former research, this paper will study the short story in a more microscopic perspective. It aims to explore two different voices in her inner world by focusing on the heroine Louisa, hoping to point out this two voices are calling and roaring internally whereas she follows her heart-felt voice after all. Based on this, the theme and even the practical significance can be further discussed.