NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
In Kate Chopin's short story The Storm, the narrative surrounds the brief extramarital affair of two individuals, Calixta and Alcee. The story does not seem to be as a condemnation of infidelity, but rather as an affirmation of human sexuality. The Storm may be interpreted as a specific affirmation of feminine sexuality and passion combined with a condemnation of its repression by the constraints of society. Even though the adultery considered a crime at that period of time, the storm allowed a moment.
The title of Storm, with its obvious connotations of sexual energy and passion, is of course critical to any interpretation of the narrative. Its title refers to nature, which is symbolically feminine; the storm can therefore be seen as symbolic of feminine sexuality and passion, and the image of the storm will be returned to again and again throughout the story. At the beginning of the story, Bobinot and his young son Bibi decide to wait out a rapidly approaching storm at the store. Although they worried about Calixta, the main character of this story.
Mall be fraid, yes. Shell shut the house. Maybe she got Sylvie help her this even. Calixta didnt notice the approaching storm. Suddenly realizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and doors.
As she was gathering up the laundry, Alcee Laballiere enters the yard, seeking shelter from the coming storm. There is a mutual attraction between Calixta and Alcee, and this attraction is not new: She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone. With Alcee's arrival comes the beginning of the rain, and he asks to wait out the storm on the frond gallery. His voice and her own startled her as it from a trance. The apparent difference in formality with which they address each other is important; Alcee addresses Calixta informally, as befits a man addressing a woman, but her response is almost coquettish, somewhere between formality and informality. The trance that Calixta is startled from is her sudden awareness that she is still sexually attracted to Alcee, even though both are constrained by their respective marriage vows.
The strength of the ever-increasing storm quickly drives Alcee inside, and it even becomes necessary to put something underneath the door to keep the storm out: Calixta rolled up a piece of bagging and Alcee helped her to thrust is beneath the crack. The imagery here is obviously sexual, but it is important to note that it is Calixta who is the initiator of the thrusting. Alcee only helps her to keep the storm out, and therefore the storm of sexual passion in. She was a little fuller of figure than five years before when she married; but she lost nothing of her vivacity.
Her blue eyes still retained their melting quality; and her yellow hair, disheveled by the wind and rain, . The authors purpose in describing Calixta, then, is to clearly link the protagonist to sensuality and passion, to the very elements of the symbolism of the storm. The storm outside continues to increase, reflecting the sexual tension inside. Calixta and Alcee move through the rooms of the house until they are adjoining Calixta's bedroom, and we see the lack of passion in marriage represented by the separate beds that Calixta and Bobinot have. The rooms description also hints at the mystery of passion: The door stood open, and the room with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious. The images in the bedroom seem to contrast one another, the white purity of innocence versus the dark mystery of sin.
Calixta begins to gather up a cotton sheet that she has been sewing, in effect putting away a symbol of society's constraints. The passion of the storm echoing her inner emotions, and when the lighting strikes nearby, Calixta staggers backward into Alcee's arms, and for a moment he draws her close and spasmodically to him. when he had unthinkingly drawn her into his arms had aroused all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh. Chopin presents both Alcee and Calixta as sexual beings, but she is clearly focusing on the sexuality of her feminine protagonist: Her lips were as red and moist as pomegranate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully. As she glanced up at him the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed a sensuous desire.
He looked down into her eyes and there was nothing for him to do but to gather her lips in a kiss. Calixta and Alcee embrace, giving in to the storm of passion that is now present in both of them. It is Calixta's sexuality, her passion, her sensuality that threatens to deluge Alcee. Bobinot and Bibi return home after walking through the mud left behind by the storm. Bobinot is presented as a good and kind man, who has been thoughtful enough to try and tidy himself and his son up and to have bought his wife a can of shrimps. Calixta had forsaken all of her marital duties in submitting to her passion.
She greets them with happiness and satisfaction at their safe return. After she finishes preparing supper, the family sits down to dinner and they laughed much and so loud that anyone might have heard them as far away as Laballieres. For Calixta, the story ends with her renewal of her marital duties, she is now aware, however, of the true extent of her natural, passionate, sexual nature. The final line of The Storm is important in its relationship to the work as a whole. The line seems to be interjected haphazardly into the story: So the storm passed and everyone was happy. Throughout the narrative, she presents feminine sexuality through the imagery of the storm.
The ending is therefore purposefully ambiguous: one may see the storms passage as implying a happy ending, or one may see it as implying that the storm will eventually return, perhaps with intent to destroy.
Free research essays on topics related to: blue eyes, feminine sexuality, storm, calixta, calixta and alcee
Research essay sample on Calixta And Alcee Feminine Sexuality
