Marriage and sexuality play a significant role in our day-to-day life. This has been impressively exhibited by a short story, The Storm, written by Kate Chopin in 1898. There are two main characters Alcee’ and Calixta, who was involved in a relationship before the story happened. However, the two characters got married to other people. This story shows an extreme and vast meaning of how they crave each other and how they end up showing each other. Chopin exhibits an emotional arrangement in very few words. Chopin uses the Storm as a symbol and use of language to narrate the Storm. ” The Storm symbolizes a deep passionate sexual desire between the two ex-lovers, just like the Storm could be potentially destructive and just passing. The Storm helps express the sexual ideology in the 19th century while making a confession about peoples’ regular proneness toward the sexual urge. In this short story, Chopin describes her comprehension of marriage and sexuality. In the 21st century, Chopin would be considered a feminist because she claims that marriage is overpowering to both genders in the ordinary sense. She uses a comprehending tone, fluent language, and a deviant characterization, expressing that prohibited and atypical sexual observations are restraining.
Chopin uses language where she articulates the emotion of her appeals. She uses a vocabulary that adds to her writing style, allowing her to move easily among the five personas and their opinions, taking the reader through a particular sex scene and the outcome of the occurrence. She moves back and forth indirectly between disputing vocabulary, where she uses cultured language to articulate the story. Babino uses distinctive language to converse with his son Bibi. In the 3rd paragraph of part three, we see an unforeseen change of phrases from Babinot’s unconstraint wording and cropped words miscellaneous and severe exaggerated expressions. Babinot’s proclamations such as “oughtta,” “you,” and “what” vary from how the author describes the scene by using articulations such as “pathetic resignation” and ” embodiment of serious solitude” (Chopin part 3 paragraph 3).
The author uses a tone that is warm-hearted and encouraging. We experience the optimistic tone when Chopin encourages her personas as they decide to engage in an adulterous affair and struggle to keep them hidden. Chopin’s tone strengthens the relationship. In the author’s tone, you can perceive that she comprehends women, where she debates the fact that men will often be looked on as successful when they are involved in a romantic affair. At the same time, women are judged and shamed for applying themselves to an experience. Chopin considers this instant was done for satisfaction and intense passion, which she understands, unlike the society that views it as disloyalty (N, A, & Mahbub-ul-Alam, 2021). In addition, the tone sympathizes with Calixta and Alcee’ because they are aware that once the Storm ends, the affair must also come to a halt; hence, they must go on their separate way to their families.
The author uses indirect characterization where she discloses the characteristic of each persona via actions, emotions, the persona looks in terms of dressing, how other characters perceive the different personas and thoughts and how they express their ideas. For example, despite Bobinot and Bibi seeking shelter from the Storm, Calixta is worried; however, when Alcee appears, she falls into the Storm of lust and forgets about her son and husband. This contrasts with society’s view of a woman because after “the storm,” she is content and happy to be back with her family ( Elliot, page 16, paragraph 3). By Chopin employing indirect characterization, we see her turn in Calixta’s flaw as illustrated by her adultery. In (Chopin 2), the Storm is classified as “stifling hot,” which combines heat and rain, bringing humidity. When Calixta starts wiping the moistness of the window, Alcee’ joins her, and they watch the window that the rain is falling in “sheets blurring the view far off cabins and enveloping the distant wood in a gray mist” (Chopin 2).
The Storm has impeded their view, and the continuous lightning attacks in the field are shielding “all visible space with a blinding glare” and rattle that “seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon” ( Chopin 2). We are shown that when the lightning hits the tree, Calixta rolls into Alcee’s arms. Just like how the Storm can not be dodged and lightning ignored, the same way the feelings between Calixta and Alcee cannot be dismissed. The Storm, Calixta, and Alcee reach their climax, and Calixta is no longer afraid of the Storm. At the end of the story, “So the storm passed away, and everyone was happy” (Chopin 5). Here the author concludes that the Storm, affair, and the story. This confirms that Chopin’s motives were to align the structure of occurrences throughout the story while the Storm grew. This story is a symbol where the last sentence concludes that all the individuals are content; hence the Storm comes to a halt.
Works Cited
Nisa, N., and A. Mahbub-ul-Alam. “What Women Should Want: A Study on Kate Chopin’s Short Stories.” Int. J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Res 9.2 (2021): 68-71.
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