Importance of Setting in Regret

In “Regret,” Kate Chopin uses many details of setting to affect the character and the mood. The story is about a fifty year old woman, Mamzelle, who begins to regret never having children after babysitting her neighbors’ children for two weeks. The character and the mood are affected mainly by Chopin’s descriptions of physical surroundings, location, and objects and sounds.
Chopin’s description of the physical surroundings affects the mood of the story. At first the mood is happy. Chopin describes the pleasant odor of pinks in the air, laughter, and a flowering cotton field. These things portray happiness, and they also say that there is color, life, and growth, and that the character cares about her yard. In the end the mood is portrayed as lon...