The tone of “At the ‘Cadian Ball” is a caring and compassionate one. While this story could easily be written as a humorous comedy of errors—all four main characters make questionable decisions when it comes to love—Chopin tells the story through a very earnest lens. Take the following passage, for example, when, near the beginning of the story, Clarisse rejects Alcée’s declaration of love:
But Alcée took the misfortune differently. He looked ill and gray after it, and said nothing. His speechlessness was frightful. Clarisse’s heart melted with tenderness; but when she offered her soft, purring words of condolence, he accepted them with mute indifference. Then she and her nénaine wept afresh in each other’s arms.
The narrator’s word choices here communicate that they take both Alcée’s and Clarisse’s pain seriously—Alcée is experiencing a “misfortune,” looks “ill and gray,” and his speechless reaction is described as “frightful,” while “Clarisse’s heart melted with tenderness” and she “wept afresh” in the arms of her godmother (Alcée’s mother). The narrator’s tone (and, by extension, Chopin’s tone) here is deeply empathetic. The characters are experiencing heartbreak and, the narrator suggests, readers should take this seriously and earnestly experience it alongside them as well.
