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New England Nun Summary

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Pet (noun): A domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure (pet). In “New England Nun,” and 1891 short story, Louisa, the protagonist, keeps two pets around her house for their friendliness and delight, yet the pets have a deeper meaning in her life: they represent it. This is a core theme that Mary Wilkins Freeman portrays in her local color story. The plot follows Louisa Ellis, a gentle and mysterious middle-aged woman. When her companionable and clumsy fiance, Joe Dagget, returns from Australia after securing their fortune, Louisa is left with the task of deciding if she still loves him and if marriage is worth breaking the order of her seemingly perfect life or should she call off her engagement. When Louisa is with Joe she …show more content…

The canary resides all alone in his own little world but always senses when Joe is near and will flutter rampantly. This represents Louisa because she makes sure everything is neat and tidy for when Joe visits. She “flutters” around her house cleaning and making sure everything is neat and orderly. The bizarre behavior in which the canary and Louisa act is explained in the quote: “A little yellow canary that had been asleep in his green cage in the south window woke up and fluttered wildly, beating his yellow wings against the wires. He also did so when Joe entered the room”(Wilkins Freeman 1). Louisa, like the canary, acts anxious, lively, and concerned when Joe enters the room. She constantly feels he will come in and bring a considerable amount of disorder into her uptight and organized lifestyle. His green bars in which his whole world revolves represent the long-lasting and ongoing engagement. The canary always attempts to depart and free himself, but in the fourteen years, it never could bring himself to completing the task. Louisa and the bird feel trapped. At the end of the story, the canary is completely opposite in attitude, similar in ways to Louisa. Like Louisa, the canary acts cool, calm, and relaxed, because there is no looming man that will shove himself in and break order to their lifestyle. Now that Joe is gone, Louisa and the bird still remember the events of the past. Now the bird can sit tight in his cage and never have to think of Joe stepping on his toes

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