Close Reading
The short story “Regret” by Kate Chopin explores the life of a woman called Mamzelle Aurelie. Mamzelle Aurelie has never married and nor does she wish that she had ever done so. While in her later years a neighbor stumbles upon her home with four children begging Mamzelle to care for them while she goes to care for her dangerously ill mother. Mamzelle Aurelie not only learns to care for the children but she grows to love them. Thus when Odile, the children’s mother, comes to gather her precious children Mamzelle Aurelie is distraught over the situation. Kate Chopin uses plot structure, point of view, characterization, setting to explore the theme of regretting decisions once made later in life.
The plot structure of Kate Chopin’s “Regret” helps support the theme of regretting decisions once made later in life because the climax and quick resolution come at the end of the story. In the beginning of the story we experience the exposition. Chopin introduces us to Mamzelle Aurelie and also develops Mamzelle’s initial conflict of having to babysit Odile’s children. This exposition leads into the rising action where Mamzelle Aurelie begins to care for the children and even love them as if they were her own. This is crucial to the story because as humans we understand that things can not remain this way forever, those children do not belong to her and eventually the mother must return. Now on the other hand if she never grew to love the children then simply out of bad luck the mother may have never returned and then she would have been stuck with them. But because she did love the children and she did not want them to go the mother obviously returned to take them. The climax of the story appears when Mamzelle spots the wagon coming down the street and before she knows it the children are gone. The resolution comes along quickly at the very end with Mamzelle Aurelie hanging her head and sobbing. The elements of climax and resolution coming abruptly at the end of the story are exemplary of the notion that one might regret decisions once made later in life. The end of the story and later in life goes hand in hand with each other. This proves that plot structure and theme compliment each other.
Another plot element the Kate Chopin uses to support her theme is point of view. The point of view of this short story is limited omniscient. The speaker of the story knows almost everything. The speaker tells us how Mamzelle is feeling throughout the story and all of the facts. What the speaker does not introduce is the feelings of the children in the story. Chopin never allows the reader into the hearts and souls of the children that Mamzelle Aurelie falls in love with. The limited omniscient point of view helps the reader to understand the theme by not allowing the reader to see Mamzelle’s heartache and regret until the end of the story. The fact that at the beginning of the story the speaker tells us “At the age of twenty she had received a proposal, which she had promptly declined, and at the age of fifty she had not yet lived to regret it.” (Chopin) The use of the word “yet” by the speaker tells us that at some point it might be possible that Mamzelle Aurelie will regret her decision. By using “yet” the speaker helps the reader understand that Mamzelle’s regret of her decision of her younger years is going to happen within this story. The limited omniscient point of view of this story supports the theme of the story by controlling the knowledge that the reader has access to.
The next plot element that Kate Chopin uses to support the theme of “Regret” is characterization. Mamzelle Aurelie is a major character in the story and she is dynamic as well. She is the protagonist in the story and previous decisions that she has made are her antagonists. At the beginning of the story she does not regret that decisions that she has made in her life thus far but she changes her mind at the end when she cries over the loss of the children. This makes her dynamic because her personality traits change as the story goes on. She begins as a rigid middle age woman, in the middle she becomes maternal and loving and in the end she is sad and heart broken. As a reader we know she is a major character in the story because the entire piece is centered on her and her feelings. It is also evident that she is the protagonist because she is at odds with her past. The characterization of Mamzelle Aurelie supports the theme that one might regret decisions made later in life by using her changing dynamic nature.
The setting of the story is also a plot element that is used to build the theme of this story. The setting of this story is Mamzelle Aurelie’s farmhouse in the country at undisclosed time in history. The time and the geographic location are not evident in the story but based on the dialogue the reader would have to assume they are in the south and quite possibly in an area where there are many French descendants. We know this because the dialect that is spoken in various places in the story has a mix of French and southern accents. Also the names of the characters are seemingly French as well. On the land are her animals and the Negroes who attend to her crops. Mamzelle made the decision to live in this manner never imagining that some day she might wish to have a family. The setting of the lone farmhouse on the countryside shows just how alone Mamzelle Aurelie wanted to be. But what once felt complete now feels empty without the children’s laughter and chatter. The setting does a great deal to support the theme that one might regret decisions made later in life.
Through the use of various plot elements such as plot structure, point of view, characterization, and setting Kate Chopin develops the theme of the story “Regret”. The theme of this story is that later in life one might regret past decisions that they have made. As a teenager someone once told me not to regret anything that I had done because at that point in my life it was what I wanted for myself. After reading this story I see now that whether it was what you wanted or not it is okay to wish that you had not done it. I think it would be impossible not to regret such a decision as spending the rest of your life alone.
Works Cited
“American Literature :: Regret - by Kate Chopin.” Short Stories & Classic Literature
from around the World. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 June 2009. <http://www.americanliterature.com/SS/SS11.HTML>.