Many American writers of the early 20th century used conflicts based on female stereotypes as a central theme in their works. For example, the main character in Mary E. Wilkins Freeman's short story, A New England Nun, lives a life of domestic solitude, happily sewing and cleaning while separated from her husband for almost fifteen years. Freeman's nun uses her domestic life as an excuse to avoid marrying her fiancé, although she leads him on for most of the story and only avoids marriage after learning of her fiancé's love for a another woman. Similarly, the much-mentioned but never revealed central character of Susan Glaspell's play Trifles appears to embrace domestic life to escape the misery brought on by her marriage, even managing to escape both guilt and suspicion of the murder of her husband thanks to her and the embrace of her comrades. of her passive, domestic and harmless feminine archetype. By focusing on the conflict arising from female stereotypes, these two stories reveal the dangers of stereotyping women as passive, subordinate, and domesticated, for both the adopter and the adoptee. A New England Nun by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman reveals the dangers of female stereotypes. to their adoptees thanks to the actions of Louisa Ellis. At the time of the story, Louisa has been engaged to her fiancé Joe Dagget for fifteen years, including fourteen years away from Louisa (Freeman 1623). Although Louisa admits that “fifteen years ago she was in love with him,” she feels apprehension about their inevitable marriage after his return (Freeman 1623). Louisa's apprehension towards Joe grows throughout the story, but because her adherence to the feminine stereotype prevents her from expressing her true feelings and breaking the middle of a paper to escape their unwanted situations. The ease with which the problems in both stories could be resolved by abandoning presumptions about how women should behave suggests that Susan Glaspell and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman want people to follow their own desires rather than the conventions of gender roles. gender. Furthermore, this moral continues to be true today; Modern readers can still benefit from letting go of their assumptions about how others should behave based on their gender, religion, or ethnicity. Works Cited Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins. A New England nun. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Seventh shorter edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2008. 1620-1627. Print. Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Seventh shorter edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2008. 1968-1976. Print.