Marriage: Not Always a Fairytale

Chopin presents many details of Calixta's affirmation of her sexuality and passion. As the storm's intensity increases, it becomes necessary to put something underneath the door to keep the rain out. ''My! what a rain! It's good two years sence it rained it rain' like that,' exclaimed Calixta as she rolled up a piece of bagging and Alcee helped her to thrust it beneath the crack.'; The sexual connotation of 'thrusting it beneath the crack'; is evident, but it is important to notice that Calixta initiates this sexual act, not Alcee. This is a far cry from an ordinary, repressed housewife. Quite the contrary, Chopin actually

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 is an experienced short story writer from the beginning of the 1900s, who was ahead of her time due to her amazing ability to take such complex characters that are easy to identify with and create amazing short stories in such a small amount of space. Marriage is a common theme in her stories, because a "wife" was a defining role in women's lives back then. The only thing is, marriage is not always shown to be flowery and romantic like writings before her. She looked at the painfully real side of how marriage can be good and bad, notably in The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Kate Chopin's attitude towards marriage is primarily negative because it can become dull and it can repress women, yet at the same time her

Marriage unites two people for better or worse, in sickness and health, until death they do part. In earlier times, some people might say wedding vows were taken more seriously; other say divorce was different back in the day. Looking at Katie Chopin and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who both exemplify martial vows in their short stories, “The Story of an Hour” and “The Birthmark.” It is clear in one instance, it was because divorce was different but then on the other hand the stories demonstrate the seriousness of the wedding vows. However, these stories express a husband-dominated relationship, in which the men possess ideals such as possession, perfection, and being all knowing.

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 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 short story, “The Storm” by Kate Chopin is about a love that could never be until it briefly was. The point that Chopin was trying to get across was that Calixta and Alcee had a strong passion for one-another, and perhaps loved each other, but they could never have been married because of their social differences. It is a passionate, but brief affair between two married people from different social classes that takes place during a cyclone in Louisiana around 1898. The story symbolizes the freedom that a woman felt inside after the rain during a time when women had no freedom. (Firtha lesson 2 page 1)

Thesis: In Kate Chopin's "The Storm" and "The Story of an Hour," the wives seem to share the foul qualities of selfishness, unfaithfulness and confusion.

Lust and love are very different things, but they are commonly confused. Kate Chopin’s “At the ‘Cadian Ball” and “The Storm” are set in the nineteenth century Louisiana. Although they both have the same main characters, the two stories are mainly about Alcee and Calixta’s relationship with one another. These stories are centered on Calixta and her confusion over her feelings for Alcée, but in the end love conquers.

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.

The two had a past relationship, so readers can either look at it as love or lust. With a more in depth reading, one can see that this story is about lust, a one-time moment that will not happen again. They both appear to love their spouses since they do not further converse a plan to repeat their actions again. To further prove the claim of lust Chopin writes, “Bobinot’s explanations and apologies which he had been composing all along the way, died on his lips as Calixta felt him to see if he were dry, and seemed to express nothing but satisfaction at their safe return”. Clearly, she loves her husband to be concerned about his well-being; if she did not, she would not have cared he was in a storm or that he had safely retuned home with their son.

The short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin reveals the emotional hardship that women endured in the late 19th century. Ms. Chopin wrote this at the end of the 1800’s, when speaking about sexuality was a taboo. She is pointing out how uncompromising the roles for women are, particularly the roles of being a wife and mother. A woman’s role during the Elizabethan Era was predominantly focused on her ability to tend to her husband’s needs and properly raise their children. Once a woman got married, their rights were legally given to their spouse and they were technically considered property. I believe that Calixta is a better wife and mom after the affair, but only because she is able to fulfill her needs with the man she really loves. On the other

   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