Chopin desired to portray men and women realistically, in the vein of the literary movement popular at the time known as Realism. Realism focused on what could be known from observation, absent the lenses of romanticism, moralism, or religiosity. In her early stories and writings, Chopin explored various types of heroines; these figures would later develop and deepen into the kind of characters found in her collections, Bayou Folk and A Night in Acadie, and novels such as The Awakening. Some of her heroines are more conventionally feminine and dutiful in their roles as wives and mothers but struggle with individual desires. Other heroines are less conventional and seek to live lives that are freer and more independent, on par with the lives of men. In late Victorian society, white men were freer to choose their way in the world, and they enjoyed many of the legal and political rights denied to women and recently emancipated Black Americans.

“Regret” portrays a less conventional, more independent female protagonist who has achieved the kind of self-reliance for which a man might be praised. Mamzelle Aurélie’s resistance to traditional gender roles is represented in her physical characterization; she has a more masculine appearance, wears men’s

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