The secrets that the characters keep from each other aren’t necessarily scandalous, but to a degree, secrecy drives the plot in both “Two Friends” and “A New England Nun.”
The narrator of “A New England Nun” really begins the secrecy in the piece by confiding to the readers that Louisa is destined to be alone: “Louisa’s feet had turned into a path, smooth maybe under a calm, serene sky, but so straight and unswerving that it could only meet a check at her grave, and so narrow that there was no room for anyone at her side” (359). The readers know this, and Louisa knows this, but Joe does not, and a man who “seemed to fill up the whole room” (357) certainly won’t fit on Louisa’s “narrow” path. Another secret forces Louisa to reveal her own: her accidental eavesdropping (363-64) leads to her discovery of Joe Dagget and Lily Dyer’s feelings for one another. Concealment layers upon concealment as Joe and Lily discuss how, up until “yesterday,” neither of them had “let on how [they] felt to each other” (363). The revelation of Louisa’s secret is, ultimately, what readers have been waiting for because they want to see how Louisa’s “straight and unswerving” fate will come to pass.
Anticipating the revelation of a secret is part of what maintains suspense in “Two Friends” as well. The readers find out with Mrs. Dunbar that Sarah has been hiding something from Abby for over thirty years. After reading about Sarah’s obvious devotion to Abby, readers are probably as surprised as Mrs.
In both pieces, secrets prevent the marriages of the two main characters. We’ve talked in class about how Abby and Louisa are better off. But what do you think about this element of secrecy? How would the stories be different if Sarah and Louisa had simply come right out and said what they were thinking?
I saw the element of secrecy in both stories as well, but I think Freeman used the element to make the stories more interesting and give it a bit of a twist. I also think she used the secrets between the characters to show that every one has a secret and she was able to use the characters ending up alone to show how women are able to live perfectly happy without a man (which is me reading this from a very feminist point of view) and as far as the stories being different if Sarah and Lousia would have come out and said what they knew, the stories wouldn't have that small element of surprise and the shock and awe factor.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that without the suspense of the secrecy, there wouldn't be any stories to tell in this case. The secrecy was a necessary tool to get the point of both stories across.
ReplyDeleteVery smart post. It's interesting to think about the types of "secrets" in these stories. Louisa's secret (that she is on her own, independent, solitary path) is unknown (at least explicitly) even to herself.
ReplyDeleteI do think these secrets are tied in part to that Yankee tradition of reticence and holding back one's emotions.