Kate Chopin The Storm Essay

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).

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.

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 Storm' begins on a stormy spring day, with the protagonist Calixta at her sewing machine. She is alone, her husband Bobinot and son Bibi have gone to the store. Calixta seems to be a bored woman, confined to her duties as a housewife and mother. As the distant storm approaches she is unaware of what the storm brings, her former lover Alcee.

Born in 1851 to a wealthy family, Kate Chopin was an unconventional woman. She dressed in strange clothing, smoked, and went on unaccompanied walks, something unheard of during this time period. In the 1890s, Chopin turned to writing after an emotional breakdown due to the death of her husband. Her writing generally received good reviews from critics, but nothing brought widespread public attention until the publication of her second novel, The Awakening. Published in 1899, the story of Edna Pontellier’s sensual awakening and abandonment of her family was just as unconventional as Chopin herself. It was met with harsh criticism and surrounded by controversy. Sensitive to the pushback, Chopin retreated into the background, publishing few more

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

In the story about Edna Pontellier a major theme is her omitted self discovery. In the story we can see how Chopin uses style, tone and content to make the reader understand how it was for a person challenging many of the beliefs of the society at the beginning of the twentieth century.

To what extent does Edna Pontellier, in Kate Chopin's The Awakening, mark a departure from the female characters of earlier nineteenth-century American novels

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 main focus of this short story is desire. The desire shown by both Calixta and Alcée for each other is obvious. Many people during the time this short story was written would look at it as being “dirty” or filthy. They would look at the affair as being dishonest and unlawful; similar to the way that some of us today. However, the way Chopin expresses the affair is not at all a sense of guilty. She presences it as if it was something that happens often and that it is a natural thing that humans do. Sexual desire is a natural aspect of people’s lives. Even though she is a strong feminist, she does not limit these sexual desires to just the female character, Calixta. She also dives deep into the desires of a man as well. “Both males and females, she seems to tell us, are complex creatures whom have no choice but to discover their passion, in spite of risks, confusion, and guilt. (Bloom 81)”. According to Per Seyersted, “sex in this story is a force as strong, inevitable, and natural as the Louisiana storm which ignites it” (Koloski 145). She observes sex as being a natural thing that cannot be avoided in or outside of wedlock (Koloski 147). She writes as if this affair was unavoidable to the drives between the two characters.

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).

Once the storm has passed and all is normal, Alcee leaves and Calixta’s family returns. Bobinot and Bibi make themselves look presentable for Calixta, the “over-scrupulous” wife (page 397) after going through the heavy roads and wet fields the storm left behind. Calixta seemed to have forgotten the encounter she had with Alcee moments before, “and seemed to express nothing but satisfaction at their safe return.” (page 397) The family sat at the table and enjoyed themselves for the remainder of the time, everything was forgotten and back to normal.

Kate is very explicit in this story. "When he touched her breasts they gave themselves up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips. Her mouth was a fountain of delight. And when he possessed her, they seemed to swoon together at the very borderland of life's mystery." (Chopin, 122) Kate was strongly criticized by society when she presented explicit material. Kate was criticized by "The Storm", but it was "The Awakening" Kate's most criticized story. After she published it, it became impossible for Chopin to publish her later work. Chopin was censored because of her explicitness in her writing and also because at that time women were supposed to have only one sexual partner. At that time Society did not believe in feminism. Her novel was out of print for several decades, because society questioned Chopin's moral values in her writing. But all of Chopin's writings are now available.

In “The Storm” Kate Chopin makes the setting an essential and entwined part of her action and ideas. The story focuses on the two main characters, Calixta and Alcee and their short love affair. The action is taking place in a small town in Louisiana where all of the characters live. The story is set in the late nineteenth century when adultery was not expected from anyone, as woman were considered to be innocent and faithful. The integration of setting and story can be followed in details about the storm itself, setting of the atmosphere/mood, and also the complexities of married status in the society.

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.