https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313 en-us 2022-11-10 19:10:24 UTC 2025-10-30 01:05:49 UTC hello@padlet.com s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2379160298 2022-11-10 19:11:43 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2379160298 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2403050920 2022-11-30 05:44:48 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2403050920 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404229470 In "A New England Nun," Louisa is perfect, precise, and meticulous in every aspect of her life, especially in maintaining a clean and orderly home. The above quote explains that Louisa finds satisfaction in neatness and harmony. 

The above quote takes place in Louisa's house. In the scene, Louisa has a conversation with Joe during their marital engagement. Joe misplaces Louisa's books, interrupting the system of order. Louisa, irritated, places the books back into place while he is watching. Joe laughs and dismisses the notion that her actions could be of any importance. 

Joe views Louisa as an obsessive, fussy woman making excessive efforts to be neat. He might use Louisa's disdain towards his actions to support the claim that she has an undue obsession for cleanliness. However, Joe sees Louisa's cleanliness from the perspective of a person unable to be neat as Louisa (Tidemann). For instance, upon entry, Joe announces his presence in a booming voice, awakening Louisa's canary. He also brings dirt into her house (Freeman).

Joe's viewpoint also stems from a common belief that what is defined as women's domestic work, such as cleaning, is only meaningful if it benefits a man. Because Joe does not gain anything from Louisa's maintenance of the books in her own house, he regards it as frivolous and laughable (Tidemann). Louisa's actions subvert the man's expectation that women's purpose is to serve men.]]> 2022-11-30 21:16:28 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404229470 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404279772 "In the future...Joe himself, with his honest masculine rudeness, would laugh and frown down all these pretty but senseless old maiden ways. Louisa had almost the enthusiasm of an artist over the mere order and cleanliness of her solitary home. She had throbs of  triumph at the sight of the window-panes which she had polished until they shone like jewels. She gloated gently over her orderly bureau-drawers... She had visions, so startling that she half repudiated them as indelicate, of coarse masculine belongings strewn about in endless litter; of dust and disorder arising necessarily from a coarse masculine presence in the midst of all this delicate harmony" (Freeman).]]> 2022-11-30 22:22:07 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404279772 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404281225 "Louisa, all alone by herself that night, wept a little, she hardly knew why; but the next morning, on waking, she felt like a queen who, after fearing lest her domain be wrested away from her, sees it firmly insured in her possession...Lily Dyer, tall and erect and blooming, went past; but she felt no qualm. If Louisa Ellis had sold her birthright she did not know it...Serenity and placid narrowness had become to her as the birthright itself. She gazed ahead through a long reach of future days strung together like pearls in a rosary, every one like the others, and all smooth and flawless and innocent, and her heart went up in thankfulness" (Freeman).]]> 2022-11-30 22:24:25 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404281225 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404281468 This quote refers to the night after Louisa learns that Joe has cheated on her with Lily Dyer. Louisa tells Joe that she would not like to get married. 

Even after their separation, Louisa feels liberated and at peace. She knows that now she will forever be the leader of her own home, not having to do what Joe wants. She will be able to keep a neat house without the company of Joe and his insensitivity.

The text's descriptions about Louisa's new feelings also emphasize that Louisa does not keep order merely because she feels a compulsion to, nor does she keep order without a reason. While Joe, as well as other men, expects women to perform duties around the house solely for the purpose of pleasing their husbands, Louisa performs these duties for her own happiness. The satisfaction and completeness she feels from maintaining her own house in this way is a valid reason for her actions.]]> 2022-11-30 22:24:47 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404281468 s24600876 https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404365985 "A New England Nun" is a commentary on expectations of women had by men. While women are expected to maintain homes only out of service to men, Louisa maintains her home in order to bring herself genuine happiness.]]> 2022-12-01 00:26:26 UTC https://padlet.com/s24600876/g1j6dxrj3va7d313/wish/2404365985