The Storm is a fiction short story that was written in July 1898 by Kate Chopin and focuses on the sexuality of the lead character Calixta. The story begins when Calixta’s husband Bobinot and his four year old son Bibi are caught by a storm at the Friedheimer's store. Meanwhile Bobinot’s wife Calixta is back at home and finds herself in a great storm of her own. The storm in this case has been used by Chopin in a symbolic manner that would mean dreadful occurrence of sexual passion that Calixta experienced; it led her to commit adultery with a former lover named Alcee. This story describes the desire to seek sexual fulfillment and freedom outside of marriage.
I am going to show how Chopin’s use of symbolism, setting, and tone reinforce my thesis statement. Throughout this paper I will be using the Gender criticism to see “The Storm” as a reflection of the author’s life and times as well as the life and times of the characters in the story. The reason I chose this school of criticism is to demonstrate how plot details, settings, and characters of the story reflect on or are representative of events, settings, and people in the author’s life. This school will also help me demonstrate possible reaction to the culture in which the author lived.
The Storm
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Calixta had a feeling that there was something missing, unfulfilling or unsatisfying in her life that gave a lot of pressure in her married life and contributed to the misfortunes in her family. Initially, Calixta was depicted as hard on the husband when the writer mentioned that after the storm her husband was prepared for the worst when meeting the over-scrupulous housewife, making them to enter through the back door cautiously (Chopin 1998). Alcee and his wife Clarisse, was stated to be in a sexless marriage. This shows that both Calixta and Alcee were only trying to fulfill their sexual desires sexual
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.
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 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.
Kate Chopin's story is set in Louisiana in the mid 1900s and in it she depicts the demonstration of affection and unfaithfulness. There are two individuals in a marriage and it is imperative for each gathering to feel adored, uncommon, and to get their coveted achievements. Chopin utilizes this story to delineate the energetic urges that a man can be overwhelmed with on the off chance that they are missing it in their own particular relationship. In the short story "The Storm," Chopin utilizes the abstract components imagery, perspective, and setting to uncover her point of view on the subject of marriage and satisfaction. Kate Chopin utilizes the moving toward storm as an image of bringing the primary characters back together. The two principle characters, whom are previous sweethearts are Calixta and Alcee. Alcee was happening upon Calixta's home amid the season of the tempest and needed to take shield in her home while it passed. The tempest is the most critical image in the story since it is depicted as the explanation behind bringing Alcee and Calixta back together. Alcee and Calixta had not seen each other "all the time since her marriage, and never alone" (Chopin 122) which made this moving toward storm extremely helpful for the two since her better half and child were held up at the store and Alcee's family was away.
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
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)
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).
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.
Kate Chopin's short story 'The Storm'; describes an encounter of infidelity between two lovers during a brief thunderstorm. The story alludes to the controversial topic of women's sexuality and passion, which during Chopin's time no one spoke about much less wrote about. So controversial was 'The Storm,'; that it was not published until after her death in eighteen ninety-nine. The story is broken up into five sections, each filled with small clues and hints that reflect her message. In short, Kate Chopin's 'The Storm'; is about a confirmation of feminine sexuality and passion and a rejection of the suppression of it by society.
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.
Her sister Josephine takes this into consideration when she tells Mrs. Mallard the news of her husband’s death. After hearing the news, Mrs. Mallard immediately begins to cry and then proceeds to lock herself in her upstairs bedroom. She gazes out of her bedroom window, noticing the beauty in the streets below. She is suddenly overcome with a sense of joy as she realizes that she now lives for herself, not for her husband. Mrs. Mallard then opens her bedroom door and walks down the stairs with Josephine to find that someone is opening the front door with a key. Mrs. Mallard’s husband walks through the door and shortly after, Mrs. Mallard is pronounced dead. In Chopin’s “The Storm,” a storm is approaching the town and Calixta, the main character, is at home while her husband and son must take shelter at a nearby store. Alcée, an old boyfriend of Calixta, is passing by the house right as the storm picks up. Calixta welcomes Alcée in the house to wait for the storm to pass. The romantic past of the two begins to distract them from the storm, and they soon find themselves engaged in romantic activities. The storm then passes and Alcée rides off on his horse. Calixta happily welcomes her husband and son home despite the fact that her son has gotten
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.
The author’s frightening story, “The Storm” has all the expected things that a good scary story should have. It has a story line that gains suspense throughout the story, there is irony, and there is lots of
In the short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, the main character Calixta is a wife and mother who appears to be unhappy and restless in her marriage and commits adultery. Calixta is able to fulfill her sexual desires with another man and does not feel guilty about it. Some readers may say that Calixta’s attitude on having an affair is selfish and most readers will not identify with the main character but may know characters that have Calixta’s mentality.