Regret Kate Chopin – 1851 - 1904

Kate Chopin 1851 – 1904 Born in St. Louis, lived her married life in Louisiana Returned to St. Louis when her husband died Turned to writing to support her family and create an identity

Chopin lost most of her closest relatives while she was a young woman. Her father died when she was a child and her husband and mother died close together. After her husband’s death, she was left to raise their five children alone.

She came from a fairly wealthy family; after her husband died she felt the need to write and be more independent, especially since, after her mother’s death, she had no close relatives left.

Her Work Chopin wrote two published novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive, intelligent women

Most of her work shows a female protagonist trying to find her way in the world and make a statement about her role in the family/society and her individual identity. Her work was considered controversial at the time, and was often difficult to get published

Literary Term Inference – the process of arriving at some conclusion that, though it is not logically derivable from the assumed premises, possesses some degree of probability relative to the premises In literature, inference is “the act of examining a story in order to determine what the story means or what message the story is trying to convey.”

Creole The story takes place in Louisiana in the late 1800s The characters speak a form of English called “Creole,” a variant developed by French speaking people who came to America over 200 years ago This is not a story about slavery – this is a free plantation owned by the main character

Regret, page 136 Background: This short story is very brief, yet very complete It intentionally leaves an feeling of being unfinished to the reader The female protagonist in the story is typical of Chopin’s characters, searching for identity

Class Work Read “Regret,” identifying any elements we have studied in previous lessons: Personification Foreshadowing Connotation/Denotation Etc. Complete Literary Critique questions, page 140, #s 1-10

Class Work Identify the use of inference in the story Identify the theme of the story Discussion: How does Chopin use inference to convey her message (the theme)?