# La Folle — Short Fiction character guide

> La Folle in Short Fiction by Kate Chopin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Folle

**First appearance:** 0018-beyond-the-bayou

## Snapshot

A woman who has lived in isolation across the bayou for years, feared and avoided, until one morning she crosses the water and walks toward the great house at Bellissime.

## Who they are

La Folle has made her cabin on the far side of the bayou and kept to it, a figure the neighboring cabins' voices pursue but never reach. One dawn she drinks her strong black coffee, crosses the water with a long steady stride as if she had done it all her life, and walks through fields of bursting cotton toward Bellissime, exulting at the river bending like a silver bow. She comes to ask after her poor little Chéri, and the mother who opens the door dissembles her astonishment at seeing her.

## In the story

### [A Very Fine Fiddle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/a-very-fine-fiddle)

Not directly present; no match in excerpt.

### [Beyond the Bayou](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/beyond-the-bayou)

Protagonist who overcomes her lifelong fear of crossing the bayou to save Chéri.

### [After the Winter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/chapters/after-the-winter)

Her presence underscores themes of confinement and freedom, as she navigates the changing season and her own inner turmoil.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/characters/la_folle
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_33_se/characters