A New England Nun

In your opinion, is Louisa happy in the world she has created for herself, or is she trapped, like the canary, and does not know how to escape? Support your answer.

Do you think Joe and Louisa would have been happy together if Joe had not gone to Australia? Why or why not?

Other stories in Freeman’s collection A New England Nun and Other Stories feature characters who, like Louisa cut themselves off from the world around them or depart from society’s values. Choose another story in this collection and compare and contrast the main themes.

Mood is paramount in Freeman’s prose. Choose a scene or passage and analyze the literary techniques the author employs to create the mood and demonstrate how it helps drive the plot.

In your opinion, are Louisa’s fears of what awaits her after her marriage realistic or exaggerated? A combination of both? Support your answer with evidence from the text.

“A New England Nun” was written in 1891 in a society that held strict Puritan values and had rigid gender roles. Would Louisa’s story be different if it were set in the present day? If so, how?

What does Freeman mean when she writes that Louisa had placed the idea of her marriage so far in the future “that it was almost equal to placing it over the boundaries of another life” (7-8)?

Overt religious imagery appears at the end of the story. Can you find other instances of religious imagery or symbolism in the text?