I do not know how many times I have heard folks (usually women) give me that knowing look when I tell them that I do not know if I want to get married, and say that I WILL get married and basically not take a thing I say seriously. Why is getting married so important? What's wrong with just loving someone? Plenty of caring, truly in love couples cannot get married (homosexuals spring to mind), so why is it a prerequisite for not sucking in life that I have to?
This is something that I think that the main character struggles with as well. On one hand, I believe that a fraction (of what degree depends on the reader I think) of the anxiety of what Louisa is feeling is that good old "cold feet" metaphor. Though, I think that for the most part she is content with herself and does not need someone else to keep her basically entertained.
Everyone knows that person who cannot sit still, they get bored easily and do not know how to entertain themselves. They usually get drunk all the time, and things like that. Just being home for one evening gets them so bored that they complain to anyone who will listen. Which is usually the walls, since no one in their right mind wants to listen to them whine. Lousia is different, she's the kind of person that has learned to be content with their own company and enjoys it.
This makes Joe an intruder, an annoyance. Over these past fifteen(?) years, Louisa has been alone. Not only that, but she LIKES it that way. So when he comes barreling back into her life, she is somewhere in between a deer in headlights and a cat hissing that someone has intruded upon their territory. I love that Fern is about to show that women can indeed be content with themselves and do not need a man (or really anyone else, regardless of gender) to hold them by the hand, pat them on the head, and play dollies with them.
That is immensely refreshing, considering how even in today's novels, the only way to be a person of any worth is to be married. Although, maybe other people see it differently.
Louisa is definitely an introvert - a content introvert.
ReplyDeleteWhen we talked about "A New England Nun" in 204, Dr. Hanrahan pointed out that the story has an atypically satisfying ending. The girl and guy don't get married, but it's more than ok. The point of the story is not for them to get together, but to be happy, whatever that means for their relationship.
I like this post! I read this story a few years ago (before i was married) and felt so sad for both parties that they weren't together at the end although they still cared deeply and had waited all that time. I read it this week, and was happy for Louisa. Although i love my husband, i can now understand how a woman may prefer having her own space to having a man around. I definitely think that this story is a good one for those that don't want/need a husband because it shows what Virginia Woolf was always saying a woman needs: "a room of one's own." I felt satisfied with the ending and felt that Louisa was satisfied as well.
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