"A New England Nun" -Laura

“A New England Nun” relies heavily on Realism, and in my opinion does it more or less successfully compared to many other works, but in the end it is still not truly realistic. The story is quiet—nothing flashy or unrealistic happens. The story rather opens a window into the life of Louisa Ellis, a recluse who has been waiting for her fiancé, Joe Dagget, to return from Australia, where he has been for fourteen years to make his fortune. He eventually returns, and Louisa is terrified of the prospect of a real marriage. When she discovers that her fiancé is already in love with another woman, Lily, she eventually decides to do the best thing for all parties involved and frees Joe from his promise to her, even though he was willing to eventually live up to it. Louise proceeds to contentedly live out the rest of her life “like” a nun.

The story is fairly realistic, for it focuses on the microcosm of the three characters (four if one includes the dog, Caesar, in the cast of characters). I personally have met people in real life who remind me greatly of Louisa, Joe, or Lily. Yet even though there are many realistic elements in the story, it is not a perfect mimicry of an actual person’s life. Because it is such a short story, names and objects must take on a greater significance in order to convey the most information in the smallest amount of space. In every one’s true life story, symbols do not conveniently fall into place. Furthermore, even the names of the characters in “A New England Nun” take on an additional meaning. Louisa Ellis has a melodious, proper sound. Joe Dagget has a harsh, abrasive sound, mirroring his intrusion on Louisa’s life. Lily Dyer has a whimsical, romantic sound to it, and she is the other, third woman. But quite obviously, names do not always fit one’s nature in real life, though they sometimes do. But I have personally met people with awful, harsh sounding names who are the sweetest people I have ever met in true life. Names are merely a coincidental way to refer to someone, but in almost all short stories names are chosen to impart as much information about a character’s personality as possible.

While there are many realistic elements in “A New England Nun,” in the end is still does not fully echo the varied nuances of real life. It would impossible to do in so few pages. Yet even though it is not absolutely like real life, it is close enough du e to it’s loyalty to the tenants of Realism that readers even centuries later can identify with the characters and learn something from the story.