Regret

Mamzelle Aurélie has powerfully manifested her individuality. As a single woman, she is a farm owner who seems highly capable of managing her own affairs; she oversees a large property of fields, all her workers and their homes, and her animals. She thereby subverts 19th-century gender norms, per which only men would be owners of property and managers of people. In addition, her physique and clothing suggest what would have been considered a more masculine presentation in the 19th century. However, the implied cost of this individuality is community. The “so” in the observation “[s]o she was quite alone in the world” (241) is a loaded transition, possibly referring not only to the short paragraph about her choice not to marry but also to the introductory paragraph about her appearance.

This lack of community is literal and figurative; Mamzelle Aurélie is alone in more ways than one. Although Odile is her nearest neighbor, when the mother arrives, Mamzelle Aurélie observes that the mother is “not such a near neighbor, after all” (241). The “after all” in this observation seems to suggest that, in addition to the physical distance between Mamzelle Aurélie and Odile, there is a social and mental distance between them.