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Love Affair Between Calixta And Alcee

Decent Essays

The theme of infidelity in literature can be approached in many ways … “The Storm” by Kate Chopin takes a more amorous route than most, delving into a love affair between Calixta and Alcee. “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston takes a more vengeful path, and focuses on Delia, whose husband, Sykes, is cheating on her. Despite their vastly different approaches, both short stories portray facets of infidelity. Though a heftier portion of the audience may relate to or sympathize with Delia in “Sweat,” “The Storm” also leaves the audience with some mixed feelings about their own former lovers, or the blandness of their current relationship.
In both “The Storm” and in “Sweat,” there is an overarching theme of infidelity. Though it is not the only theme in either of the stories, it is one of the more prominent ones. In “The Storm,” Calixta cheats on her husband with her former beau, and it is not looked upon as bad or wrong. There is no evidence showing that there will be any sort of punishment. In “Sweat,” however, the author takes a very different approach. Sykes is a terrible, abusive husband who cheats on his wife remorselessly, thus making the audience view infidelity in a harsher light. This leaves him with a more gruesome fate, where he dies by the end of the story. Although both stories have a theme of infidelity, “The Storm,” it is more focused on the act itself rather than the consequences. The entire story is split into five parts, the longest being the explicit

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