She was educated by the best private tutors and traveled with her family - and alone - to satisfy her quest for knowledge (813). Wharton also had access to private libraries, where she could immerse herself in the works of the best and most influential writers. The women in her social circle were surrounded by the newest fashions and knew the ins and outs of presenting the most appropriate etiquette. They found great satisfaction in arriving at the frequent formal balls and parties, always in search of the perfectly groomed and successful husband (813). .
Wilkins and Wharton were raised in different ways, financially, educationally and socially, but both women wrote with similar points of view and purpose. Both authors had dealt with the death of loved ones and with a husband who suffered with depression. .
In the short story, "A New England Nun," Mary E. Wilkins Freeman wrote about a woman who's future husband is irritating and frustrates her. She states that she felt much as the kind hearted, long suffering owner of the china shop might have done after the exit of the bear. This sentence is saying that the whole time Joe Dagget is in her house she is nervous that he is going to mess something up and that when he left she felt relieved. By this it seems as if Mary Freeman is portraying a man as block on her life and emphasizing in her story that women really do not need men to live a perfectly happy life. Not only that but that life might even be easier without a man their life. Edith Wharton fought for a different presentation of women through her writing in a different way. In her work "Roman Fever"," she portrays the man character as an adulterer. She does this by, when Mrs. Slade states that, After all, I had everything; I had him for twenty five years. And you had nothing but that one letter that he didn't write (836). Then Miss Ansley responds, "I had Barbara""(836). That statement proves that Wharton portrayed Delphin as an adulterer or the villain in the story.
