Regret

Kate Chopin’s short story “Regret” was first published in the American literary journal Century in May 1895. Later, it was published as part of her second collection, A Night in Acadie, in 1897. Many of Chopin’s stories were written and published before The Awakening, the novel for which she received posthumous fame, particularly in the 1970s during second-wave feminism. Other works by this author include “At the ’Cadian Ball”, “A Respectable Woman”, and “The Night Came Slowly”.

Kate Chopin’s writing was grounded in Louisiana, where she lived in the late 19th century. Her stories are tied to a time in which memories of the Civil War were still fresh in the American South. Though slavery had ended, Black Americans were often subjected to restrictions, prejudice, and violence. At the same time, Reconstruction-era policies attempted to make society more equal. The Gilded Age (1877-1896) was a relatively conservative era; wealth disparities increased drastically, and women were restricted by societal norms and expectations.

This guide is based on the story as it appears in Kate Chopin: Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, published by Penguin Classics in 1999. This edition includes an introduction and notes by editor Bernard Koloski.

Content Warning: The source material uses outdated, offensive terms to refer to African Americans, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotations.

The story is told in the omniscient third person. Mamzelle Aurélie is a strong woman with brown hair that is turning gray and a determined look. She lives on a farm in Louisiana, and around the farm, she wears a masculine hat, a blue army overcoat, and riding boots. She hasn’t considered marrying. At the age of 20, she turned down a marriage proposal; now 50 years old, she has yet to regret it.

She lives alone except for her dog, Ponto, the workers who live on her property and work on the farm, and the farm animals. Her gun and her religious beliefs keep her company.

One day, Mamzelle Aurélie’s neighbor, Odile, arrives with her four children. Odile’s mother is ill, and she needs to go to Texas to tend to her. The scene shifts from a placid, hierarchical ordering of beings, duties, and tasks to sudden chaos. Elodie, the infant, is carried by her mother; Ti Nomme is being dragged unwillingly by the hand; and Marcéline and Marcélette reluctantly follow. Odile herself has a face affected by crying and agitation. Mamzelle Aurélie notes that their arrival is not only unexpected but unwelcome. After entreating Mamzelle Aurélie to tend to her children while she goes to Texas, Odile takes her leave with Valsin, who drives a mule cart. The children are left on Mamzelle Aurélie’s porch.

There is a static moment during which the narrator describes sensory details: Sunlight shines on “the old white boards”; chickens scratch, including one who “boldly [mounts] the porch;” there is a “pleasant odor of pinks;” and one can hear laughing across the “flowering cotton-field.”

This moment, in turn, is interrupted by Mamzelle Aurélie’s return to her take-charge mindset. She looks at the children carefully and tries to figure out the rational next step. She decides to feed them, though she soon realizes that this task alone will not address the whole of their needs. Her challenges are then portrayed via a list of rhetorical questions that summarize her inadequacies as a caretaker.

One night, she confesses her frustration with the caretaking to her cook, Aunt Ruby. Aunt Ruby tells her a person like her can’t be expected to know about raising children. Aunt Ruby adds that if Mamzelle Aurélie had more experience with children, she would have realized her mistakes and their consequences.

Mamzelle Aurélie then begins to make changes. To protect her clothing, she retrieves her aprons from storage, which she hasn’t worn in a long time. She accustoms herself to Ti Nomme’s kisses, which she begins to accept as expressions of his affection. She retrieves her seldom-used sewing basket to have on hand for mending the children’s clothing. She accustoms herself to their noises—laughter, crying, talking—which echo through the house. She eventually grows comfortable with the baby, Elodie, sleeping close to her at night. After adapting to these demands and changes, she doesn’t complain about the children.

By the time Mamzelle Aurélie grows accustomed to the children and her role as guardian, however, it is time for them to return to their mother. Odile returns with Valsin to carry them home. Mamzelle Aurélie is flustered upon seeing the happy Odile approach. Her mind casts over where each child may be located. The children’s return to their mother is not rendered in detail but in a single summary statement. As Mamzelle Aurélie stands on her porch, the same location where the children stand upon their arrival, she notices sensory details again, this time the purple mist over the field appearing as the sun sets, the arriving twilight, and the faint sounds of the children as they ride away.

Inside her house, Mamzelle Aurélie notes the disorder but doesn’t address it. Instead, she sits at the table of a room darkened by the coming of night and begins to cry. She doesn’t even notice Ponto, her dog, licking her hand.