Feminine Sexuality in The Storm

A theme is the prime element of literature, which contains the central idea of the story. It helps reflect on the characteristics that a story might have and reflects on observations interpreted from our view of the author. The theme, a main idea or underlying meaning of literary work may be stated directly or indirectly, but it is ultimately our job to figure it out. Throughout any story, short story or poem you can see the constant change of imagery that will play a big part in the development of the characters ability’s to demonstrate the theme. In “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, the theme illustrates many sexual desires, adultery, and happiness as well as shows a theme of conflict. Chopin uses a storm to represent sexual passionate tension that builds throughout the story between the two main characters Alcee and Calixta.

The theme of this story seems to be that when Calixta and Alcee had sex and cheated on their marriages, it made their marriages happier, "so the storm passed and everyone was happy"(Chopin 150). Alcee wrote to his wife the night he cheated on her, "it was a loving letter, full of tender solicitude"(150). And after having an affair, the character Alcee seems to care more about his wife and baby, "realizing that their health and pleasure were the first things to be considered"(Chopin 150). He seems to care more about his wife and baby after he cheats on his wife because of the word "realizing." It gives the meaning that he just figured out that their health and pleasure were the first things to be considered. Calixta and Bobinot, as well as Bibi are shown to be very happy and full of laughter after she cheats on Bobinot," when the three seated themselves at table they laughed much and so loud that anyone might have heard them as far away as Laballiere's"(Chopin 149).

Kate Chopin wrote the short story “The Storm” one of her most bold stories and did not even intention to publish it (Cutter 191). The two main characters in the story are Calixta and Alcee. They both used to be attracted to one another in previous years, but now they are both married to someone else. After Alcee arrives to Calixta’s house looking for shelter they are driven into a passionate moment. In the story “The Storm” the storm has a significant meaning; without it the affair of Calixta and Alcee performed would not have been as powerful as it was between them. “The Storm” has a great deal of symbolism throughout the story: the clouds, the use of color white, the storm relative to the affair, the after effects of the affair, Calixta,

In the story "The Storm", Kate Chopin plots a situation in which two people surrender to their physical desires. Chopin wrote fiction stories in the late 19th century. She was condemned due to the immorality presented in her work. At her times, woman was considered to be very innocent, and always faithful to her husband. In Chopin's work one sees a totally different view of a woman's behavior. She is not a popular writer of her era because of her crude works; the audience of her period could not justify her stories. In the story "the storm", Kate Chopin by hiding the immoral behavior of her characters behind the fear of bad weather is being ironic.

The theme adultery was first initiated when Alcee requested to reside in Calixta’s house till the rain passed. “His voice and her own startled her as if from a trance…”. Judging from the way they both reacted, it is clear that the two still have some sort of feelings for each other. Another aspect that leads to the feelings of both characters is when Chopin outlines the setting of the room they are in. “The door stood open, and the room with it’s white monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious.” Already, the tone has changed becoming more tense and so has the storm as it beat upon the shingled roof with force like Chopin describes in the story. When Calixta realizes the storm has gotten worse, she then walks over to the window with a disturbed look on her face and Alcee of course follows behind her which proves that he wants to be around her. From the minute Alcee walks in, Calixta begins to show signs of nervousness which proves that he still has some affect on her. The tension of the rain and Calixta’s feelings both build up as it begins to rain harder, the winds blow harder and the lightening become stronger which symbolizes Calixta’s feelings at the moment. She tries to

The author employed the use of symbolism in the description of the storm. Storm, a natural phenomenon that brings about extreme weather condition that might lead to an undesirable outcome. "The Storm" in the context of the selection brought about a positive outcome. “The storm” in the story is not the physical storm that occurred outside with heavy downpour, but the coming together of Alcee and Bobinot. A physical storm forms when the atmosphere is saturated with water and droplets of water pour out from the sky. The symbolic importance of the storm represents the liberation of Alcee and Calixta, from the shackles of societal or moral expectation. "He pushed her hair back from her face that was warm and streaming her" (425). Although Alcee pushed Calixta’s hair back to see her face, the author’s interpretation was not physical. Chopin meant that Alcee was able to set Calixta free from the bondage of marriage temporarily.

Alcee helps Calixta safeguard the house, thereby placing them on the same footing as partners. Through the sexual encounter that ensues, Calixta continues to free herself from the confines of the societal constraints of being a woman, moving farther into her own individuality. Chopin describes Calixta?s body as finally ?knowing for the first time its birthright,? that is, freedom from inferiority (860). Since Calixta?s awakening comes through a sexual encounter, many argue that the sex she shares with Alcee is the birthright she discovers. By describing a previous encounter they shared in Assumption, Chopin shows that while the sex leads Calixta to her discovery, the breakthrough goes deeper than merely sex. The passion that Calixta finds within herself springs from this very self-awareness and freedom.

Story takes place within a society which morally cannot allow sharing of this type of an encounter with others. Both of the main characters are expected to continue their marital life and remain faithful to each owns family. In the story, the writer addresses the theme of womanhood and the complexities of the holy matrimony. The story is drawn to a close by this sentence, “So the storm passed and everyone was happy” (Chopin). This sentence reflects the relationship that Calixta and Bobinot share and provides us with a glimpse of the emotional bond the two of them have. The writer’s view is that a woman’s sexuality and her desires are suppressed by marriage, although sometimes that desire can be fulfilled without placing any type of damage on the relationship.

Kate Chopin in “the Storm” uses symbolism in characters to develop the theme that marriages are not perfect. Although there is a physical storm in the story, there is also a storm of emotions. Chopin is able to convey the emotions of her characters throughout the story because the storm that takes place at the very beginning of her story.

Calixta and Alcee had a strong passion for each other. Chopin says: Alcee rides up to her house and asks “if he can take shelter

The conflict between love and lust begins with the contrast between one young man’s true love for Calixta and another’s lust. In the first story, Chopin introduces the reader to Bobinôt, an Acadian farmer, who is day dreaming about Calixta, the “Spanish vixen” (Chopin 1265). With a Cajun background, Bobinôt already possesses a social tension with Alcée, a wealthy Creole planter. Guarino comments on this cultural tension in her ethnic analysis: “Belonging mostly to the lower class, Cajuns have always had a conflict relation to the upper class formed mostly of Creoles” (7). Chopin displays this in the distaste Bobinôt mentally expresses towards Alcée in the first story “At the ‘Cadian Ball.” In addition to the social turmoil between the two men, Chopin further distinguishes between true love and lust by contrasting Bobinôt’s

The presence of Calixta's sexual desire and its intensity make this story revolutionary in its feminist statement about female sexuality. Chopin uses the conceit of a thunderstorm to describe the development, peak, and ebbing of passion in the encounter between Calixta and Alcee. At first, Calixta is unaware of the approaching storm, just as her sexual desire might be on an unconscious level; yet, as the storm approaches, Calixta grows warm and damp with perspiration. Chopin does the obvious by these two events when she writes that Calixta, "felt very warm . . . she unfastened her white saque at the throat. It began to grow dark and suddenly realizing the situation she got up and hurriedly went about closing windows and doors" (Part 2 Paragraph 1).

The short story, “The Storm,” can be classified as a story that is explicit of its kind because of its sexual and adulteress content. Although the story is portrayed as that, Chopin is able to bring about two parallel subjects to combine with each other to bring about one meaning that contributes to the subject as a whole. In the story, an affair occurs in the midst of a storm between Calixta and Alcee, two fond lovers that find each other once again and relive their

but she behaves immorally. She is a very pretty woman who has a fling with her former lover Alcee while waiting out the storm. Calixta seems to be a good mother and to care for her husband, she just isn’t happy with him. For example, she worries about Bibi and Bobinot’s safety the storm, which proves she cares for them. Yet she finds comfort from her former lover Alcee while worrying about her husband and child. Chopin states “Alcee’s arm encircled her, and for an instant he drew he close and spasmodically to him” (The Storm 2). This proves she must care for her husband, but turns to Alcee when needed comforting.

   In Kate Chopin's time traditional patriarchal notions about women and sexuality deemed sexual passion a negligible, even improper, aspect of women's lives. Yet Chopin boldly addresses a woman's sexual desire in her short story "The Storm". This story shockingly details a torrid extramarital sexual encounter between Calixta and Alcee` in the midst of a raging storm. While this story line could have been presented in a traditional light, perhaps as a lesson about the evils of uninhibited female sexuality, Chopin maintains a non-judgmental stance by refraining from moralizing about the sanctity of marriage or impropriety of Calixta's actions. In failing to condemn and even