Regret By Kate Chopin Short Story Analysis With Summary And Theme

Regret – This article will tell you the short story entitled, “Regret” by Kate Chopin with story analysis, summary and theme in English. What is the theme, summary, plot, setting, character and point of view of Regret by Kate Chopin?

Regret

MAMZELLE AURELIE possessed a good strong figure, ruddy cheeks, hair that was changing from brown to gray, and a determined eye. She wore a man’s hat about the farm, and an old blue army overcoat when it was cold, and sometimes top-boots.

Mamzelle Aurélie had never thought of marrying. She had never been in love. 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.

So she was quite alone in the world, except for her dog Ponto, and the negroes who lived in her cabins and worked her crops, and the fowls, a few cows, a couple of mules, her gun (with which she shot chicken-hawks), and her religion.

One morning Mamzelle Aurélie stood upon her gallery, contemplating, with arms akimbo, a small band of very small children who, to all intents and purposes, might have fallen from the clouds, so unexpected and bewildering was their coming, and so unwelcome. They were the children of her nearest neighbor, Odile, who was not such a near neighbor, after all.

The young woman had appeared but five minutes before, accompanied by these four children. In her arms she carried little Elodie; she dragged Ti Nomme by an unwilling hand; while Marline and Marcélette followed with irresolute steps.

Her face was red and disfigured from tears and excitement. She had been summoned to a neighboring parish by the dangerous illness of her mother; her husband was away in Texas — it seemed to her a million miles away; and Valise was waiting with the mule-cart to drive her to the station.

“It’s no question, Mamzelle Aurélie; you jus’ got to keep those youngsters fo’ me tell I come back. Dieu sait, I wouldn’ botha you with ’em if it was any otha way to do! Make ’em mine you, Mamzelle Aurélie; don’ spare ’em. Me, there, I’m half crazy between the chil’ren, an’ Lon not home, an’ maybe not even to fine po’ maman alive encore!” — a harrowing possibility which drove Odile to take a final hasty and convulsive leave of her disconsolate family.

She left them crowded into the narrow strip of shade on the porch of the long, low house; the white sunlight was beating in on the white old boards; some chickens were scratching in the grass at the foot of the steps, and one had boldly mounted, and was stepping heavily, solemnly, and aimlessly across the gallery. There was a pleasant odor of pinks in the air, and the sound of negroes’ laughter was coming across the flowering cotton-field.

Mamzelle Aurélie stood contemplating the children. She looked with a critical eye upon Marline, who had been left staggering beneath the weight of the chubby Elodie. She surveyed with the same calculating air Marcélette mingling her silent tears with the audible grief and rebellion of Ti Nomme. During those few contemplative moments she was collecting herself, determining upon a line of action which should be identical with a line of duty. She began by feeding them.

If Mamzelle Aurélie’s responsibilities might have begun and ended there, they could easily have been dismissed; for her larder was amply provided against an emergency of this nature. But little children are not little pigs: they require and demand attentions which were wholly unexpected by Mamzelle Aurélie, and which she was ill prepared to give.

She was, indeed, very inapt in her management of Odile’s children during the first few days. How could she know that Marcélette always wept when spoken to in a loud and commanding tone of voice? It was a peculiarity of Marcélette’s. She became acquainted with Ti Nomme’s passion for flowers only when he had plucked all the choicest gardenias and pinks for the apparent purpose of critically studying their botanical construction.

“‘T ain’t enough to tell ‘im, Mamzelle Aurélie ,” Marline instructed her; “you got to tie ‘im in a chair. It’s w’at maman all time do w’en he’s bad: she tie ‘im in a chair.” The chair in which Mamzelle Aurélie tied Ti Nomme was roomy and comfortable, and he seized the opportunity to take a nap in it, the afternoon being warm.

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At night, when she ordered them one and all to bed as she would have shooed the chickens into the hen-house, they stayed uncomprehending before her. What about the little white nightgowns that had to be taken from the pillow-slip in which they were brought over, and shaken by some strong hand till they snapped like ox-whips? What about the tub of water which had to be brought and set in the middle of the floor, in which the little tired, dusty, sun-browned feet had every one to be washed sweet and clean? And it made Marline and Marcélette laugh merrily — the idea that Mamzelle Aurélie should for a moment have believed that Ti Nomme could fall asleep without being told the story of Croque-mitaine or Loup-garou, or both; or that Elodie could fall asleep at all without being rocked and sung to.

“I tell you, Aunt Ruby,” Mamzelle Aurélie informed her cook in confidence; “me, I’d rather manage a dozen plantation’ than fo’ chil’ren. It’s terrassent! Bont! don’t talk to me about chil’ren!”

“T ain’ ispected sich as you would know airy thing ’bout ’em, Mamzelle Aurélie. I see dat plainly yistiddy w’en I spy dat li’le chile playin’ wid yo’ baskit o’ keys. You don’ know dat makes chillun grow up hard-headed, to play wid keys? Des like it make ’em teeth hard to look in a lookin’-glass. Them’s the things you got to know in the raisin’ an’ manigement o’ chillun.”

Mamzelle Aurélie certainly did not pretend or aspire to such subtle and far-reaching knowledge on the subject as Aunt Ruby possessed, who had “raised five an’ buried six” in her day. She was glad enough to learn a few little mother-tricks to serve the moment’s need.

Ti Nomme’s sticky fingers compelled her to unearth white aprons that she had not worn for years, and she had to accustom herself to his moist kisses — the expressions of an affectionate and exuberant nature. She got down her sewing-basket, which she seldom used, from the top shelf of the armoire, and placed it within the ready and easy reach which torn slips and buttonless waists demanded. It took her some days to become accustomed to the laughing, the crying, the chattering that echoed through the house and around it all day long. And it was not the first or the second night that she could sleep comfortably with little Elodie’s hot, plump body pressed close against her, and the little one’s warm breath beating her cheek like the fanning of a bird’s wing.

But at the end of two weeks Mamzelle Aurélie had grown quite used to these things, and she no longer complained.

It was also at the end of two weeks that Mamzelle Aurélie, one evening, looking away toward the crib where the cattle were being fed, saw Valise’s blue cart turning the bend of the road. Odile sat beside the mulatto, upright and alert. As they drew near, the young woman’s beaming face indicated that her home-coming was a happy one.

But this coming, unannounced and unexpected, threw Mamzelle Aurélie into a flutter that was almost agitation. The children had to be gathered. Where was Ti Nomme? Yonder in the shed, putting an edge on his knife at the grindstone. And Marline and Marcélette? Cutting and fashioning doll-rags in the corner of the gallery. As for Elodie, she was safe enough in Mamzelle Aurélie’s arms; and she had screamed with delight at sight of the familiar blue cart which was bringing her mother back to her.

THE excitement was all over, and they were gone. How still it was when they were gone! Mamzelle Aurélie stood upon the gallery, looking and listening. She could no longer see the cart; the red sunset and the blue-gray twilight had together flung a purple mist across the fields and road that hid it from her view. She could no longer hear the wheezing and creaking of its wheels. But she could still faintly hear the shrill, glad voices of the children.

She turned into the house. There was much work awaiting her, for the children had left a sad disorder behind them; but she did not at once set about the task of righting it. Mamzelle Aurélie seated herself beside the table. She gave one slow glance through the room, into which the evening shadows were creeping and deepening around her solitary figure. She let her head fall down upon her bended arm, and began to cry. Oh, but she cried! Not softly, as women often do. She cried like a man, with sobs that seemed to tear her very soul. She did not notice Ponto licking her hand.

The Short story entitled, “Regret,” is from americanliterature.com

Regret Story Analysis

Regret by Kate Chopin analysis is a precise analysis of the story to further understand its underlying message. Allow us to indulge ourselves by delving into the great story analysis of the story Regret.

Title	Regret
Author	Kate Chopin
Publication Date	1897
Setting	At the farm of Mamzelle Aurélie, apparently in the rural Louisiana.
Theme	In Kate Chopin’s story “Regret,” we see the themes of loss, loneliness, detachment, commitment, love, independence, and responsibility all at once.
Genre	Short story
Moral Lesson	Do something that would make you happy so that you will not have any regrets.
Characters	Mamzelle Aurélie, Ponto, Odile, Elodie, Ti Nomme, Marline, Marcélette, Valise, and Aunt Ruby.
Regret Summary	It all started with Mamzelle Aurelie, a beautiful and strong woman. She was never in love and never thought of marriage. When she was twenty, someone proposed to her, but she declined. Odile, her neighbor, has four kids (Elodie, Ti Nomme, Marceline and Marcelette). Odile entrusted the kids to Mamzelle while she was away. Mamzelle did care about the kids. She had never kept such a child before. She mistook the kids for pigs, but she was wrong. She never quit whining. Mamzelle was exhausted. She got used to it till she was comfortable with the kids. Odile returned one night and took the kids home. Mamzelle had a heart attack. She looked to her room where she used to be with the bad kids. Then she sobbed.

Regret by Kate Chopin

Author Kate Chopin, who was born Katherine O’Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1850 and died in 1904, is regarded as one of the 20th century’s earliest feminist novelists. She is often said to be the person who started the modern feminist literary movement. Chopin was going about her normal life as a housewife until a bad thing happened. Her husband died too soon. This changed the course of her life.

She is best known for writing The Awakening (1899), Bayou Folk (1894), A Night in Acadie (1897), Desiree’s Baby (1893), The Storm (1898), which is a sequel to her story At the ‘Cadian Ball (1892), Regret are among her most celebrated short stories.

A lot of different writing styles were used by Chopin, taking into account her Irish and French heritage, as well as her time living in Louisiana, where Creole and Cajun influences were strong. To put it another way, she was an exceptional writer who could bring life to a blank page like few others.

Regret Theme

In Kate Chopin’s story “Regret,” we see the themes of loss, loneliness, detachment, commitment, love, independence, and responsibility all at once.

Regret Genre

The genre of Regret is a short story that belonged to the Modern Feminist Literature. According to study.com, modern feminist literature talks about important political issues, current attitudes toward women in society, or trying to break down gender-specific myths.

It is a way to show that feminism thinks that women and men are equal. Scholars argue feminist literature became “modern” by setting the date as works published during or after the 1960s (Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, et al.), while others credit Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour (1894) for kicking-off the “modern” genre.

Regret Moral Lesson

Do something that would make you happy so that you will not have any regrets.

Regret Characters

Regret Summary

Regret Summary Analysis: It all started with Mamzelle Aurelie, a beautiful and strong woman. She was never in love and never thought of marriage. When she was twenty, someone proposed to her, but she declined.

Odile, her neighbor, has four kids (Elodie, Ti Nomme, Marceline and Marcelette). Odile entrusted the kids to Mamzelle while she was away. Mamzelle did care about the kids. She had never kept such a child before. She mistook the kids for pigs, but she was wrong. She never quit whining. Mamzelle was exhausted. She got used to it till she was comfortable with the kids.

Odile returned one night and took the kids home. Mamzelle had a heart attack. She looked to her room where she used to be with the bad kids. Then she sobbed.

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This short story, called “Regret by Kate Chopin,” was taken from her collection A Night in Acadie, the story is told in the third person by an unnamed narrator. After reading the Regret story summary, the reader realizes that Chopin may be exploring the theme of loss, or at the very least the sense of loss that Mamzelle Aurélie feels in her life as a result of never having children to love and cherish.

Based on Regret by Kate Chopin Short Analysis With Summary, Characters, And Theme, this story is highly creatively told because the goal of the story is not revealed directly in the beginning or halfway of the story. And, in the end, the story was spectacular.

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