The Storm by Kate Chopin - Book Report/Review Example

? Short Story Analysis ‘The Storm’ by ‘Kate Chopin’ Kate Chopin’s short story, ‘The Storm’ is a bold description of milder issues of a human’s life, especially those of women. Chopin uses the kaleidoscope of feminism and explores the issues of sexuality that were little talked of in contemporary times. Set in the 19th century, the story shifts its focus from the usual plots to the more emotional side of human existence and paints a totally different image of a contemporary woman’s role in society. The theme revolves around two major characters – Calixta and Alcee – and is supported by the families of the two. Lovers of a time, the two enthusiasts are coincidently united on a stormy day and in the absence of either’s family. The isolation gives way to long hidden desires and paves the way of exploration for the two. Through this paper we will explore the depth of characters, reflecting on the subject of sexuality and the way sexuality affects one’s life, and will relate sexuality to the theme of the story. Kate Chopin reveals the main character – that of Calixta – as nervous, weak and family-oriented. She is represented as a devoted wife staying home and doing the usual chores a woman is supposed to do. Unaware of the impeding storm she is sewing by the window - ‘She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine’ – which we can conclude with the idea that she makes her effort to keep her home in a good state. We can also deduce that the woman was sexually constrained, since she was doing all the house chores an oppressed woman is stereotyped with; ‘She hastened out to gather them (the clothes) before the rain fell’. Chopin further affixes the idea of sexuality which had not been explored to a considerable extent in contemporary times. Women were taken to be as beings with no sexual desires and mere fulfillers of their partner’s yearnings. But here in Chopin’s story, the character is portrayed as sexually stronger, reflecting on the fact that female desires can too erupt and not necessarily a woman finds peace in her assumed happy marriage. This portrayal defends the idea that women do not home desires and cannot do anything that the society and even the religion does not approve of. Despite all odds, Calixta made love out of the isolation she was pushed into and out of the love she possessed for a man, in the backdrop of the furious storm; ‘He looked down into her eyes and there was nothing for him to do but gather her lips in a kiss’. Chopin highlights the not-to-talk-of issue of female sexuality and very cleverly unties its knots from that of erotica. What may seem as an illicit lovemaking between two sensual creatures, actually veils the underlying meaning and feelings behind the act. At a time when her family was out in the furious storm, Calixta had taken refuge from the worry in the arms of an old-time lover. The concern had been such great that she went down with the flow of the presiding situation, disheveling her heart through her hidden desires. This clearly moves the reader to believe that women have desires too – and that was what actually Chopin had tried to convey. The sentence that ‘Calixta nervously began to gather up from the floor the lengths of a cotton sheet’ asserts that the air was tense and that Calixta’s nervousness had something to do with Alcee’s presence. Earlier everything was just ‘fine’ but after Alcee’s presence it became nervous. This, we may assume as Calixta’s effort to suppress feelings for Alcee, making her nervous. The character of Alcee is a representation of a decent man with natural desires. He had been forced to move inside the house of Calixta which he had not really desired, while the rain fell in sheets. ‘May I come over and wait on your gallery till the storm is over, Calixta?’ he had asked. The circumstances led the way for his desires resurfacing and what followed eventually was an array of mixed feelings. He had not only loved Calixta, but was away from his wife – the two reasons being enough for his desire for lovemaking with Calixta. Eventually he feels good and Alcee does not feel the urge of staying close to his wife. This can be clearly judged by the fact that he wrote a long love letter to his wife that very night, granting her the permission to stay where she was for a while longer, if she was happy about it; ‘It was a loving letter full of tender solitude. He told her not to hurry back –‘. Clearly, Alcee was relieved and did not feel the necessity of sex. That is very true for real life incidents like these. His desire for sex was met and the separation from his wife would not do any harm to him. He was rejuvinated and his encounter had filled him with renewed energy. The use of a natural force, that is the storm, camouflages an encounter that is undoubtedly a sin. Chopin does not boldly write about the narrative of lovemaking but instead uses a code language that implies an intimate encounter. This was because of the fact that out of marriage love was taken as a serious sin in contemporary times and no woman was expected to ever involve in such pleasures. The storm outside, then the rain and the bolting light, all try to veil the action of the two. At one point the nature forces Alcee into the house and at another the lightning sets the climax between the two. Chopin writes about it with great precaution and intricate detail and subtlety. Bobinot is portrayed as a caring husband who even through the storm does not forgets to buy his wife a can of shrimps. By the time he and his son reach home things are back into order; Alcee has left and, as Chopin puts it, ‘-the storm passed and everyone was happy’. This stresses that the presence of storm and Alcee and the absence of Bobinot, blended in a good manner and as soon as the storm was over things turned out fine and nobody was hurt. Rather Alcee and Calixta felt good and everybody laughed and enjoyed that night. On the whole, the idea of the story is riveting and carries a stigma attached to it. In contemporary times and even today, illegitimate relationships out of marriage were considered as taboos and those going against the law, were bound to face severe punishments. The Christian beliefs of the characters in the story further stress the point, as Christianity strongly forbids illicit sex. The two other supporting characters of father and the son – Bobinot and Bibi – do their justice to the plot, as they build the right environment for the story; their absence from home had led to the encounter among Calixta and Alcee. The force of nature then enabled Calixta and Alcee to make love. Kate Chopin successfully attempts at bringing forward a view of how women feel when it comes to relationships and desires. Though previously men were conceived as the dominant gender full of lust and hunger, Chopin attributed a part of the same characteristics to that of women. Women have equal sexual desires like men and fulfillment of such desires can bring a new air into life. The clever use of the backdrop of a storm enabled Chopin to create a masterpiece. Her idea has pioneered the many romantic sagas that had followed ever since. Works Cited Bartee, Joanna. ""The Storm": More Than Just a Story." VWC Faculty Staff . N.p.. Web. 23 Feb 2013. . Read More