Symbolism in "The Storm" Essay

Her sexuality has been repressed by the constraints of her marriage and society's view of women, represented by the housework being done before the storm hits. Chopin alludes to this theme of suppression again as Alcee is invited into Calixta's home. The author writes, 'Come 'long in, M'sieur Alcee. His voice and her own startled her as if from a trance, and she seized Bobinot's vest. Alcee, mounting to the porch, grabbed the trousers and snatched Bibi's braided jacket that was about to be carried away by a sudden gust of wind.'; Alcee grabs Bobinot's pants, symbolically subverting the social and martial constraints that control Calixta.

After Calixta meets with Alcee she no longer show signs of frustration or exhaustion; she is now worried about Bobinot and Bibi out in the storm. As Alcee is walking to the porch he “snatched Bibi’s braided jacket that was about to be carried away by a sudden gust of wind” (Chopin 532). This evidence demonstrates Alcee will to obtain anything he

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 short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin revolves around a theme of adultery. The story takes place in Southern Louisiana during the early 1900’s. “The Storm” not only serves as a title but creates a setting as well as symbolizing the affair that takes place between the two main characters, Calixta, the wife and Alcee, the former lover. While reading the story, you’ll begin to notice that as the storm begins, comes to a peak and ends, so does the affair and the story. Overall, the title metaphorically resembles their relationship while also implying that adultery is natural being that a storm is also a natural occurrence. Not only does Chopin use imagery to shape Calixta and Alcee’s sexual encounter in Calixta’s house, but he also uses the color “white” which represents purity. Although this sinful act does not illustrate purity, the experience and feeling that the two lovers undergo during the act does. This also goes to say that Chopin uses both imagery and color to also redefine female agency and sexuality.

Bobinot played a major role in the plot that led to infidelity between Calixta and Alcee.

With the passing of the storm and the departure of Alcee, Calixta does not revert to her subordinate housewife bonds. Instead, she uses her awakening to discover newfound happiness in her marriage and duties as a wife and mother. When Bobinot and Bibi return, the reader sees a different Calixta than the downtrodden, worried, and selfless Calixta from the beginning of the story. In fact, it is the father and son who must begin ?to relax and enjoy themselves,? not Calixta, who is already joyously preparing dinner (861). At the dinner table, ?they laughed much and so loud that anyone might have heard them? (861). The only other time

'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.

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.

Calixta states, “Oh, Bobinot! You back! My! But I was uneasy. We’re you been during the rain? An’ Bibi? He ain’t wet? He ain’t hurt?” she grabs her husband and begins “kissing him effusively” (102). Calixta’s excessive questions and overbearing kisses give no room for Bobinot to think of anything other than his wife’s worrisome feelings and actually make things better for the family. Bobinot and his son were already worried that Calixta was going to be upset because they were late but Calixta’s expressions of satisfaction of their return made for a good family dinner.

The storm is menacing, it rolls in “somber…with sinister intention.” Chopin allows us to see the storm build up slowly, reaching its highpoint, and passing. The storm builds chaotically to its climax, Alcee and Calixta are together. As the storm dies out and fades away everything is quiet again in terms of the relationship. The reader can make the assumption that the marriages are unharmed, but it shows that they aren’t perfect.

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

When Alcee rides up at the beginning of the storm Calixta gathers her husband s Sunday clothes in order to remember her sense of duty and loyalty to her husband.  Respecting social graces, Alcee tries to stay outside, but the storm drives him into the house.  Inside Calixta s home Alcee can see into her  dim and mysterious  bedroom, this foreshadows the forbidden relationship that takes place.

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

This conceit of the storm continues throughout much of the story with the storm's crescendo symbolizing a climax in Calixta and Alcee`'s sexual encounter. At first, the obvious desire between the pair is sublimated into a nervous tension, and the effort to restrain their physical longing for the sake of social mores is paramount. Calixta exclaims, "If this keeps up, Dieu sait if the levees goin' to stan' it," which is symbolically indicative of the growing force of their passion and the weakening of their resistance before that passion. A blinding bolt of lightening breaks the lovers' nervous tension, much as it splits through the air and strikes the chinaberry tree. This violent crash precipitates Calixta and Alcee`'s first embrace and kiss, and the affair that ensues vividly matches the progress of the raging storm. The storm reaches a crescendo, which Calixta views as a delightful counterpart to their passionate love-making, for, "they did not heed the crashing torrents, and the roar of the elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms" (284). To make the parallel between the storm and Alcee and Calixta's affair particularly evident, Chopin consistently uses this conceit until the end of the encounter, for the thunder