The Identity Struggle Women’s roles are constantly changing. In early America, society believed that women were wives to their husbands and mothers to their children. They were there to serve the men in their lives. Young girls were required to obey the commands of their fathers, and women were to fulfill the wishes of their husbands. The men believed that this was their right. They believed that women’s job was to bolster the men’s self-esteem and to ensure that men were forever kings of their own domains. However, this belief changed drastically in the mid-nineteenth century, and by early twentieth century, women began to make statements of their own. They wanted women’s rights in marriage, voting and employment. Women became outspoken people with their own views and wishes. This change was neither simple nor easy. It took time for women’s power to emerge. Many women were successful in establishing their own identities.
Freeman portrays both single and married women as strong willed characters. The women “actively determine and maintain places of their own choosing and enclosing [enclose] themselves in situations and choices that reflect personalities and purpose conducive to the affirmation” (Daniel 2). They act only to maintain their true selves. These women do not care what society will think of them or how men will react. They strongly believe that what they are doing will better themselves as people and as women. “A New England Nun” is an accurate portrayal of a self-sufficient woman in the nineteenth century. Louisa is a woman who lives alone. She is engaged to Joe Dagger who went out to “strike new fields and secure competency before they were to be married.”(3) She waits fifteen years while her fiancé works in Australia. Meanwhile, Louisa lives a life of perfect order and contentment. “Louisa’s feet had turned into a path, smooth maybe under a