Regret

“Mamzelle Aurélie 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 topboots.”

The opening paragraph presents Mamzelle Aurélie as a no-nonsense, commanding figure, even masculine in her physical bearing and personal adornment. She seems all-powerful, and yet, it is her characteristic approach to life and its challenges—her “determined” eye—that will limit her ability to care for the children. This mighty figure is set up as a preamble to a fall.

“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.”

The diction of this paragraph seems to suggest the nature of Mamzelle Aurélie’s process for making life decisions. She has prioritized Logic at the Expense of the Senses, with this description prior to the arrival of the children setting the tone for her character. The use of adverbs, for example, convey an absolute quality (she “never thought of marrying” and has “never been in love”), suggesting a thought process that is closed off to future possibilities. Not only that, but she also “promptly” declines a marriage proposal, suggesting a lack of reflection. That she “had not yet lived to regret” her decision to live in the world as a single woman also suggests a point of pride.