Selected Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

First published: 1983

Type of work: Short stories

Form and Content

These selected stories are from two of Freeman’s most popular and critically acclaimed collections, A Humble Romance (1887) and A New England Nun (1891). The stories focus on small-town New England life and the struggles of working-class people. Most of Freeman’s protagonists are women; they are usually older, often widowed or unmarried, but still vigorous and self-supporting. Both male and female characters vacillate between wanting solitude and freedom, and needing community and support.

Freeman’s characters display heroism within their economically and geographically circumscribed existences. Strong-willed to the point of stubbornness, they support traditional values of pride, honesty, frugality, and industriousness. Martha Patch, in “An Honest Soul,” works herself to exhaustion to ensure that she has correctly pieced her neighbors’ scraps into their respective quilts. Harriet and Charlotte Shattuck of “A Mistaken Charity” live frugally in order to avoid the poorhouse; other women—Aurelia Flower of “A Gatherer of Simples,” Jenny Wrayne of “Christmas Jenny,” and Betsey Dole of “A Poetess”—also live simply, supporting them-selves by means of their own work.

Freeman’s women often defy social convention. Hetty Fifield of “A Church Mouse” persists in living inside the church and working as sexton. Sarah Penn, in “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’ ” moves the contents of her cramped house into the spacious barn her recalcitrant husband has built instead of the new house she wanted. In “A Village Singer,” Candace Whitcomb refuses to accept the congregation’s decision to replace her as soprano soloist and speaks passionately against old-age discrimination.

Courtship plots frequently appear, but they receive nontraditional treatment. Louisa Ellis of “A New England Nun” has waited fifteen years for her fiancé’s return; when he finally arrives, she realizes that she prefers living on her own. In “A Patient Waiter,” Fidelia Almy has waited for her beloved’s letter over the course of forty years; she dies without getting the letter but remains pathetically hopeful to the end. Similarly, “Two Old Lovers” and “A Conflict Ended” both deal with long-term courtships. “Up Primrose Hill” has two courtship plots: In one, Maria Primrose rejected Abel Rice years before; in the other, Abel’s nephew Frank Rice and Annie Joy counterbalance the mistake of the older generation when they decide to marry.

Friendships between women are the central focus in “On the Walpole Road,” “A Gala Dress,” and “Sister Liddy.” Only two of the stories have male protagonists: “A Solitary” and “A Village Lear.” In all the stories, Freeman’s careful use of natural detail—plant and animal life, the weather, the landscape—creates vivid settings. Her use of New England dialect also contributes to the stories’ regional authenticity.

The stories are simple and to the point, without extraneous exposition. Dialogue between characters is usually brief, but Freeman’s laconic New Englanders manage to convey much meaning despite their taciturnity. The stories’ endings are often ironic; several conclude with the death of the central character. Although they are understated, Freeman’s stories contain a psychological depth and literary richness that transcend the confines of their surface details.

Context

Freeman is most often associated with a group of late nineteenth century writers known as Local Colorists, who realistically portrayed specific regions of the United States. Like her contemporary Sarah Orne Jewett, Freeman wrote about rural New England; unlike most of Jewett’s work, which idealizes small-town life, Freeman’s fiction shows the restrictions as well as the benefits of close-knit communities.

Freeman’s critical reputation derives not only from her skillful, realistic regional depictions, but also from the universality of her themes and the stark precision of her style. She received the Howells Medal for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1926; later that same year, she was one of the first women elected to membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Freeman’s fiction continues to appeal to audiences. She portrays women’s concerns and their interior lives with psychological depth and complexity. Far from succumbing to the limitations imposed on them, her women characters take subtle yet significant actions to assert their independence and challenge the authorities who would otherwise continue to oppress them. One of Freeman’s many accomplishments in her fiction is the creation of characters who are neither glamorous nor adventurous, but who are admirable for the courage, boldness, and assertiveness they display in their everyday lives. In their own small ways, Freeman’s characters are revolutionaries: They express feminist sensibilities that, while lacking political support, result in more equitable social and economic conditions for themselves and for others.

Like many women writers, Freeman expresses the tension between the constraint of living (and writing) according to accepted social codes and the freedom of rebelling against those norms. Her women characters reject conventionality in quiet or private but nevertheless powerful ways: by rejecting marriage, supporting themselves, and living happy, fulfilling lives outside marriage or motherhood. She realistically presents women’s economic conditions in poverty-stricken rural New England, but she never makes her characters pitiable. Instead, these women triumph over adversity; this is Freeman’s enduring legacy.

Bibliography

Foster, Edward. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. New York: Hendricks House, 1956. Foster’s biography of Freeman provides extensive coverage of her life and her work. Much of Foster’s biographical information comes from interviews with people who knew Freeman personally. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with A Humble Romance and A New England Nun, respectively. Contains an extensive bibliography and an index.

Glasser, Leah Blatt. “Legacy Profile: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.” Legacy 4, no. 1 (1987): 37-45. Glasser summarizes the life and work of Freeman, and discusses Freeman’s long-term friendship with Mary Wales, with whom she lived for twenty years before she married Charles Freeman.

Pryse, Marjorie. Introduction and afterword to Selected Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. New York: W. W. Norton, 1983. Pryse edited and selected the stories in this collection. The introduction gives general background on Freeman’s life and art, placing her in the context of other New England and Local Color writers; the afterword provides critical summaries of the stories.

Pryse, Marjorie. “An Uncloistered ‘New England Nun.’” Studies in Short Fiction 20 (1983): 289-295. Pryse reevaluates “A New England Nun,” viewing Louisa Ellis’ decision to remain solitary from a positive perspective. Within the context of her small-town existence, Louisa is heroic, wise, and ambitious—not narrow or passive, as previous critics have viewed her.

Reichardt, Mary R. “Mary Wilkins Freeman: One Hundred Years of Criticism.” Legacy 4, no. 2 (1987): 31-44. Gives an overview of criticism on Freeman, identifying five main areas of early criticism. Summarizes feminist criticism on Freeman. Contains a bibliography.

Toth, Susan Allen. “Defiant Light: A Positive View of Mary Wilkins Freeman.” New England Quarterly 46 (1973): 82-93. Toth emends the critical commonplace that Freeman’s work focuses on weak, infirm characters and the decline of New England village life by discussing instead the vitality of Freeman’s characters as they struggle against and within their local community.

Westbrook, Perry D. Acres of Flint: Writers of Rural New England, 1870-1900. Washington, D.C.: Scarecrow Press, 1951. Westbrook discusses more than a dozen New England writers of the late nineteenth century and devotes an entire chapter to Freeman. Westbrook focuses on Freeman’s treatments of rural life, conscience, and will; he also compares her treatment of Puritan themes to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s.

Westbrook, Perry D. Mary Wilkins Freeman. Boston: Twayne, 1967. Although chapters 2 and 3 deal specifically with A Humble Romance and A New England Nun, this study covers the range of Freeman’s work and provides biographical background. Westbrook judges some of the stories in A Humble Romance to be superior to those in the latter collection. Includes an annotated bibliography of sources and an index.