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SEMESTER V

FCP SOFT SKILLS

NAME: BEE BEE ZAINAB

PRN: 16010126466
CLASS/DIVISION: IIIRD YEAR/E
 Kate Chopin’s “The Storm”

Characters: Calixta, Bobinôt, Bibi, Alcée Laballière

Plot: A huge storm comes in; two married people indulge in fornication and then everyone
lives happily ever after.

ANALYSIS

This story by Kate Chopin was written at the end of 1800’s when women were not allowed to
earn property. It is seen that she’s pointing out how strict the rules for women were as she
writes so honestly about this story at the time when it was a taboo also which she dint publish
as it would be very scandalous and a shock to people.

Chopin focused especially on the role of wife and mother wherein we see Calixta (wife to
Bobinot and mother to four year old Bibi) who’s deep into the duties of being a wife and
mother as she’s been sewing and washing as there were clothes hung in the gallery. From the
opening we see that she’s been working so hard that the approach of the storm goes
unnoticed. Symbolically, the storm is being ignored and she’s been denying some part of
herself or some force inside of her which she’s not paying attention to. Therefore, we
understand that the wife-mother roles are consuming her. But after the storm and the affair
she had with Alcée, she’s happy in her wife-mother role. She cooks up a meal, makes some
coffee and accepts a little gift of shrimps in a sweet charming way. All of this being every
surprising to the husband and the son as they anticipated her to be displeased with them,
because she’s very pristine and their shoes stuck with mud but on the contrary she’s happy,
relaxed and very generous. Hence, she’s a better wife and mom after the affair.

Kate Chopin does not mean that the woman should be running around indulging in
fornication so that they can stand to be married. The bigger message here which she’s trying
to portray is we usually deny our needs which maybe our sexual needs and our inner needs
(mind, body, soul). Therefore, if we don’t express ourselves and fulfil ourselves, we have
nothing to give back.

For Chopin, sexuality is something natural and is an expression which needs to be

acknowledged. As we can see Calixta was ignoring the storm at first, it should be
acknowledged and not disregarded. When morality kicks in, it’s not accepted by the society.
Both of them cheated on their spouses which is also not respectable in the religion of
Christianity. In fact there was a brief mention of the church where she takes down the Sunday
clothing she had put for wash and when she does it she is taking away the restrictions in her
religion and the church for the duration of the storm for hence it will be out of the picture.
The symbolism of the church according to Chopin is one more layer of duty and repression
for the woman. In her view these restrictions and these rules do cost something when Calixta
did all the dutiful things as she didn’t marry the guy she was attracted to, Mr Alcée who she
had history with and therefore married to someone from her own class and had a baby but
hence that’s not all who she is. Kate Chopin is trying to portray that women are not only the
wife and the mom and when they are repressed and when are not allowed to express
themselves, they become unhappy and are not able give their full potential. Chopin is trying
to show the consequences where if the women are pushed into a situation where the only way
is to get fulfilment through immoral means. It would be better if we had a society which
allowed her to marry the guy she wanted to, not getting status and class in picture. Kate is
trying to say that the system Calixta lives in is toxic and if you choose a life which is too
structured or too narrow for your soul, then that’s just not going to work.

Being driven to forsake ones marriage vows or being driven to use an affair as a way to
rejuvenate oneself is a sad situation. Whereas Calixta here is in a restricted time period,
which is the only way to get a sexual fulfilment and for Chopin counts as something to be
acknowledged. Calixta and Alcée enjoy sex and they had a healthy sexual act, it wasn’t
violent but a very passionate and beautiful experience. But, it’s not allowed morally,
culturally and unfortunately that’s what they both need. When they go back to their spouses,
it has good effects. Maybe we could blame the storm that forced them together which is true
as Chopin had let the storm give them an opportunity for them to be together. The storm, the
force of it’s like sexuality which cannot be denied; it must be withstood or accomplished. In
the role wife-mother, sometimes sexuality is side-lined and not included in the identity of a
woman. Chopin very metaphorically focused on the issues of sexuality, roles of mother and
wife and also the issues of marriage through this short story “The Storm”.