Mary Wilkins Freeman as One of Those Prolific Writers of Early 19th Century - Research Paper Example

?Mary Wilkins - Freeman Introduction Literature is reflection of life. It inevitably bears the scar or mark of the time and society from which it hasevolved. And often literature bears the scar or is influenced by the writer’s life and his or her position or struggle in or against the society in which the individual writer has survived. Mary Wilkins Freeman is one of those prolific writers of early 19th century whose creations are acclaimed as timeless and universal. Her life and stories merges so brilliantly that it appeals readers of all ages and all times. A close introspection to the works of Freeman would launch her readers into a contention that reaches the writer far beyond the ordinary paradigm of creativity. Mary Wilkins Freeman is considered as one of the earliest feminist writers and placed at the same category with the writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Sarah Orne Jewett. Critics find her work many a times quite provincial and they claim they are too oriented to New England. But new critics find an inherent feminist call in all her works. There is a story of struggle and women empowerment in all her stories that mark and initiate the trajectory of modern women and feminist discourse. Freeman’s story projects series of character and she is famous for her art of characterization. Critics view that the stories of Wilkins presents Randolph neighbourhood. This essay intends to study the characters from the stories, ‘New England Nun’, ‘A Church Mouse’, ‘Old Woman Magoun’ and his famous story, ‘The Revolt of Mother’ which was also broadcasted and dramatized in PBS in the recent past, and relates the lives of the protagonist of these stories with that of Wilkins and explores the reflection of the life of an individual writer made universal and relative through the immense and intense portrayal of life-like characters. Comparative Study of the Protagonists of Short Stories: New England Nun, A Church Mouse, The Revolt of Mother and Old Woman Magoun and Analysis of their Life with that of Wilkins’ Own Story To analyse the conflict of paradoxical voices within conscience of the protagonists of the stories like ‘New England Nun’, ‘A Church Mouse’, The Revolt of Mother’ and ‘Old Woman Magoun’ and to establish relative contexts with that of the Wilkins’ life, it is important to have a brief look at the writer’s life and these stories individually. A close look at the life of Wilkins enables the reader to understand the kind of struggle the woman has undergone and as a first generation working woman the kind of struggle she had to face in order to strike the balance between her profession and family. As a writer and a conscious citizen, she had a pertinent rebellious spirit captivated within her body and therefore had to fight a consistent and relentless battle between her inner voice that always had tried to stand against the orthodox social and religious constraints and the other voice did not permit out to be a staunch rebel and instead guided her to the path of calm domesticity. Torn asunder under the paradoxes of self and inner conscience, Mary Wilkins Freeman chosen the medium of literature to speak out her mind and aware the society of her thoughts. Under these circumstances of writer’s life it is quite pertinent that the reflections of these paradoxes are deciphered in the characters of her stories. “New England Nun” is a story of a woman named Lousia Ellis and the story was published in the year 1891. The protagonist of the story is Louisa Ellis, who has spend a major portion of her life alone with her pet dog Caesar whom she thinks better to be chained always as it had bitten a neighbour when it was a puppy. Lousia is shown eccentric by nature who is always obsessed with cleanliness of her home and is shown wearing double apron and busy in cleaning her house, books and she prefers to eat in her clean china every day. Lousia promised her beloved, Joe Dagget before leaving for fortune hunting to Australia that she will marry her. After 14 years when Joe returns Lousia is shown in a paradox. She is confused of her feelings towards Joe and wants to marry him because she has promised it to him. Lousia is also aware of her clumsy habit she has acquired all these years and she feels very troubled to share this clumsy eccentric life and habit of all these years with anyone. Literally unoccupied for all these years she has now fallen in love with seclusion, solitude and eccentricity. However more like a blessed event she overhears Joe and her recent sweetheart Lily that despite of their love for each other they would depart as Joe is ought to keep the promise made to Lousia. The next day Lousia appeals Joe to break-up and Joe departs despite of having the slightest hint about Lousia’s knowledge about his courtship with Lily. The last line of the story, “Louisa sat, prayerfully numbering her days, like an uncloistered nun” gives a strong hint towards the theme, inner conflict suffered by Lousia between her present and future life and also establishes a close connection with the life of Freeman (Washington State University, “Mary E. Wilkins Freeman”). Wilkins’ parents belonged to orthodox Congregationalist and as a result, Freeman had to suffer a very restricted childhood. She bore the scars of her deprived childhood due to religious constrain which is why this theme is quite recurrent in her short stories and her most celebrated short story, “New England Nun” is not an exception either. Lousia is not a nun but she almost lives a cloistered life, where serenity, seclusion, perfection and celibacy are her choices like that of a nun. The words “prayerfully numbering her words” allude to the image of rosary and the life of Lousia is an image of a catholic nun and Catholicism whose orthodox facets were strongly attacked by Freeman. ‘The Revolt of ‘Mother’’ is the most celebrated short story by Freeman and the story appeared in the year 1890 in the collection of the stories bearing the name “Harper’s Bazaar”. The Revolt of Mother like many other stories of Freeman depicts the local colour and portrays the village community of New England during the nineteenth century when the countryside of England was undergoing a major social transition. The story, ‘The Revolt of ‘Mother”, centres round its protagonist Sarah Penn and her family. Out an out culminated on the framework of a strong underlying feminist discourse, the story presents a conflict between Sarah and her husband Adoniram Penn who promises Sarah of a decent house forty years back at the time of their marriage and breaking it or merely forgetting it is bust in building the barn in the place where the family was supposed to have their house. The story shows the different ways in which men and women think about domestic duties and their family. For Adoniram, building barn is more important so that he can store more livestock in it whereas for a mother and a woman, it is more essential to build a decent house for her family and children so that they can live a proper peaceful life. The reversal of the traditional gender roles in this story is deliberate and Sarah in front of her children though maintains the traditional role of a wife who is supposed to follow her husband’s every decision silently, is actually suffering from an inner conflict where she is repeatedly confused to prioritise the role of a mother or a wife. At the end of the story, the readers are introduced to a rebellious mother who evolve out of her inner conflict and stand in the way of her husband’s decision to protect her family and render a good life to them, “Adoniram was like a fortress whose walls had no active resistance, and went down the instant the right besieging tools were used. “Why, mother” he said, hoarsely, “I hadn't no idee you was so set on't as all this comes to.” (Freeman, “The Revolt of "Mother" and Other Stories”). Freeman shows the evolution of modern women and the story of her life gets reflected through the character of Sarah. Sarah is a typical nineteenth century woman who has learnt to taste the women empowerment and has undergone the transition in the society to stand for the betterment of their family and domesticity. She has learnt to overcome the conflict and is now able to unburden the load of assigned traditional role of women bestowed on them not by choice but by compulsion. She is microcosm of new English women who learnt to keep pace between work and family and outraged every limit to protect their children and family without even hesitating to come into direct conflict with her husband’s priorities. This story is also closely related with the life of Freeman as in the year 1877 the family had to move into a home where Freeman was hired as a housekeeper and her mother and the family were deprived of their dream house by their father. “A Church Mouse” on the other hand is a story again that dwells on the duality of Freeman and centres round the life of Hetty Fifield who is desperate to take the role of Church Saxton despite of being an unconventional vocation for women. In the story, A Church Mouse the action and the conflict reaches a collective appeal from that of an individual plea. The traditional quilt common in the household of the English countryside is not merely a representative of local element and mark of time in the story. Far from being a mere local entity, the sunflower quilt of Hetty becomes the symbol of women empowerment and the assigned role of work on genders. The conflict and rebel of Hetty clearly indicates the conflict undergone by Freeman for her work in life. Being the mouthpiece of Freeman, Hetty says, “All I want is jest the east corner of the back  gall'ry, where the chimbly goes up. I'll set up my cookin'-stove there, an'  my bed, an' I'll curtain it off with my sunflower quilt, to keep off the  wind” (Freeman, “A Mary Wilkins Freeman Reader”) In the story, “Old Woman Magoun”, Freeman portrays a grandmother almost reaching her to a universal paradigm whose only motto in life is to protect her grand-daughter, Lily whom she has raised. She is depicted as the desperate and independent courageous woman who dares to fight with the society, precisely with the men in the society. She has very limited control on the circumstances and fate of her grand-daughter, yet she takes the plunge in almost all possible ways to protect her from all the external agencies. In protecting her grand-daughter, she actually pushes her into the lap of death but Freeman wants to see us the judgement of a woman clouded by the deep felt emotions of motherhood, love, pity and compassion which is greatest of all things in the world. Freeman wishes to understand and search the limitless love that Old Woman Magoun has for her grand-daughter and did not want to judge or justify her actions. She has also suffered conflict between her duties and abound emotions and the societal limitations and restrictions imposed on her. And Freeman thus wants her readers to see that under such grave conflict one ought to make mistakes where the intention guided by emotion becomes more humane than justice and correction (E Notes, “Old Woman Magoun Summary & Study Guide”). Conclusion In all these stories, Freeman presents the conflict of woman in the nineteenth century society against the limitations and conventions of social authority, gender roles and traditions imposed on them and their rebel and battle in life to survive these worthless impositions in order to protect their family and children. The paradox of motherhood and universal womanhood greater than any society and its restriction becomes the key motto in all these stories. Each small household of these women actually becomes microcosm of society in which the women are often chained to myriad social and religious constrains. References E Notes, “Old Woman Magoun Summary & Study Guide”. March 25, 2011. The Story. No Date. Freeman, Mary Wilkins. A Mary Wilkins Freeman Reader.U of Nebraska Press, 1997. Freeman, Mary Wilkins. “The Revolt of "Mother" and Other Stories”. Courier Dover Publications, 1998. Washington State University, “Mary E. Wilkins Freeman”. March 25, 2011. A New England Nun. No Date. Bibliography Glasser, L. B. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852 – 1930).” March 25, 2011. Georgetown University. No Date. Read More