The main characters in the ‘Cadian ball are Bobinot, Alcee, Calista, Clarisse, and Bruce. Bobinot and Clarisse were Acadians from Canada who settled in Louisiana. They did not get along with the Creoles because the Creoles unsettled them from their habitation in Canada (Herbert-Leiter). The Creoles are from the upper class French and Spanish settlers in Canada (Herbert-Leiter). They created a social class between themselves and the Acadians or Cajuns (Herbert-Leiter). This set the tone for the love affair between Alcee and Calixta. Alcee was Creole while Calixta was Cajun. They both liked each other but could not go public because of societal influence. However, Alcee’s intention was to have an affair with Calixta. Calixta wanted more from Alcee but gave up when Clarisse interrupted them while they were having an intimate moment. …show more content…
Bobinot, also a Cajun, suspected that the wealthy Alcee had an affair with Calixta. Bobinot liked Calixta because of her physical qualities, and her Spanish roots. Bobinot’s motive for attending the ‘Cadian ball was to prevent Alcee from getting to Calixta. He recollected what happened in Assumption and tried to prevent that from happening again. Alcee’s mother adopted Clarisse. Clarisse also came from an upper-class family. She liked Alcee but turned him down when he made advances towards her. Clarisse main reason for going to the ‘Cadian ball was to prevent Alcee from associating with the lower class Cajuns. Also, she used the moment to tell Alcee about his feelings for him. Bruce, a negro servant, served Alcee’s family. He played a major role by revealing Alcee’s whereabouts to Clarisse after much
He tries to court Edna and becomes his lover satisfying his physical necessities while her husband is on a business. A quote that could have us to understand better Alcee as character could be the following. “His manner was quiet, and at times a little insolent. He possessed a good figure, a pleasing face, not overburdened with depth of thought or feeling; and his dress was that of the conventional man of fashion” (72).
During this time a storm develops leaving them stranded seeking shelter. Alce, the character who appears to be Calixta first love suddenly appears at her house as she is alone seeking shelter from the storm himself. They had not laid eyes on each other since Calixtra was married which from a passage in the text indicated it had been five years at this points “She was a little fuller of figure than five years before” (The Storm, by Kate Chopin). Surprised to see him she invited him in which resulted in the room being filled with feelings and the sensation of flesh they craved for each other. Like the scene in Titanic they drift away making love to each other passionately. At the beginning Calixtra fights to resist the temptation “Bont! She cried, releasing herself from his encircling arms and retreating from the window” (The Storm, by Kate Chopin) but is ultimately overpower by temptation. Calixtra’s moment of awakening comes when Bobint and Bibi returns and she affectionately attends to her husband and effusively kissing her son. In this moment she see what she has, an amazing family. This is a women how just cheated on her husband with a man she has held feelings for but the love for her husband a family unit holds more values, weirdly it took her committing a wrong deed to realize this. Her moment of awakening in the case was positive though
The storm is the major factor of getting Alcee and Calixta back together. If the storm would not have hit, Calixta’s husband and son would have been able to return home, and Alcee would have not had a reason to come by the gallery where Calixta was. Also, while Alcee was waiting on the storm to pass at the gallery, he gave readers reason to believe that the two of them had been lovers before. A line in the story that was said by the narrator was “She had not seen him since her marriage and never alone.”, this symbolizes that Alcee and Calixta have had some type of relationship before the two of them married other people, and she does not trust herself alone with him. When things started to get intimate between the two, Alcee said “Do you remember in Assumption, Calixta?”.
Curley’s wife is a beautiful woman, whose blossoming with love, with big hopes for the future. She dreams of becoming a big actress n Hollywood. She wants to become rich and famous, and have nice cloths. She wants to make something from her life. Because of her beauty she was promised great things. But in reality her dreams never came true, the letters she awaited never came, the promises that were maid to her were never fulfilled. “Could’ve been in the movies, an’ had nice clothes”. She refused to stay where she would be a nobody. “Well, I wasn’t gonna stay no place where I couldn’t get nowhere or make something of my life”. So one night she meat Curley at the Riverside Dance Palace, and she married him, he became her ticket out from her desperate life. She never married him out of love and passion just of desperation. “I don’t like Curley. He aint a nice fella”.
Calixta makes it apparent that she needs more from her husband and if he is not going to give her what she needs, she will find it in another man. The story depicts that Bobinôt did not give his wife the attention she needed when Bibi asked, “Mama’ll be ’fraid, yes” and Bobinôt responded by saying, “She’ll shut the house. Maybe she got Sylvie helpin’ her this evenin’” but Bibi corrects him by saying, “No. She ent got Sylvie.
Calixta is the wife of Bobinot, also the mother of their four year old son Bibi. The day the storm brewed in she was preoccupied sewing, unaware of the rolling clouds. Calixta obliviously did not worry for the boys’ safety in the storm, as Bobinot and Bibi were away in town. She was a caring wife and mother though. As soon as she realized the situation she rushed outside to grab her husband’s trousers and such hanging on a linen line to save from the rainfall. There outside was where she saw Alcee Laballiere. With good intentions she let Alcee wait out the storm on her porch. Though the severity of the rain led Alcee to proceed inside, Calixta could not help but fear for the well being of her husband and son. As the hard sheets of rain pounded the shingles, she became more afraid and concerned for young Bibi and hoped they were safe. Looking out at the storm, Calixta began to cry and staggered backwards into Alcee’s surrounding arms. ‘“Bonte!” she cried, releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the window,’ (Vol. C 533...
Desiree was found when she was only a toddler by Mousier Valmande. Desiree is given a home and raised by her adoptive mother, she is also given unconditional love from her mother, in spite of her obscure origin. Madam Valmande really loved her and even considers Desiree to be a gift of Providence, “Desiree had been sent to her by a beneficent Providence to be the child of her affection, seeing that she was without child of the flesh”. When Desiree is suspected of being black her mother shows her love like no other she isn’t disgusted like Armond, but instead she loves her like a mother should and tells her to come home. This is the ideal love that she was looking for in Armond.
Soon after this, Calixta who is then feeling the situation gets up to look outside the window, as not to keep looking at Alcee for she knows what may come of it. Alcee then also gets up to look out the window so that he may stand close to Calixta, which shows how Alcee wants to be with her. While Calixta is looking out the window she sees that it is raining hard and there is strong winds and lightning, which clearly signifies how mixed up Calixta’s feelings for Alcee are at that moment. After this Alcee grabs Calixta close to him as she staggers back, she then retreats and immediately asks where her son may be. This also shows that Calixta is having mixed feelings with the situation. Which is the reason she gets loose but does not tell Alcee to control himself but yet like nothing had happened wonders where her son may be, “ Bonte! She cried, releasing herself from his arms encircling arms and retreating to the window… If I only knew were Bibi was!”
“Desiree was happy when she had the baby and Armand was as happy and nice to the slaves then before but after he saw his child growing to be mixed it changed his whole attitude” (Griffin). This shows how the story takes place during slavery time, since the husband was a slave.
Armand knew that Desiree’s decent was questionable and that she would be a perfect scapegoat if color were to show up in a child. When Monsieur Valmonde wanted Armand to fully consider Desiree’s unknown origin, he acted like it did not matter which is very peculiar during that time:
Although Madame Loisel isn’t wealthy or part of the social class that is considered high, she tried to do everything to make herself appear as if she is. She believes that her beauty can bring her as far as becoming wealthy or being able to socialize with the wealthy. The ball is important to her because for once her appearance is equivalent with the fantasy of rising above middle class she has dreamt up in her head and “[she] was a success. She was the loveliest of all; elegant, graceful, smiling, and radiant with joy. All the other men looked at her, asked who she was, and wanted to be introduced to her… [t]he triumph of her beauty and the glory of her success enveloped her in a sort of cloud of happiness made up of all the compliments” (175). The reality is beneath her appearance because she is not wealthy, nor is she actually happy with the life she lives on a daily basis. She easily deceives everyone with her appearance to make it seem as if she does have money. Uncontrolled self-absorption can distort lives to those who worry about their appearance too much. Another example of how appearances can be misleading is the necklace that Madame Loisel borrowed. It appears as if it is made of real diamonds but instead it is fake jewelry. The fact
In the beginning of the story, Bobinot and his son Bibi stay at a store to let the storm pass by. Calixta, the wife, is at home by herself doing some chores around the house. As the storm starts to approach, Alcee rides in and asks Calixta if he could come in until the storm passes. It starts to rain immediately after he arrives. It's important to know that Alcee and Calixta had a past together, which he brings up to her later in the story.
... The affair brews, it happens, and then it is over. But as we know another storm will happen and so will the affair between these two characters. When Alcée sends a letter to his wife saying that she must not rush home, this is an indication that Alcée may expect to see Calxita again soon. “Mrs. Chopin may refuse to sit judgment on morals, but she covers only one day and one storm and does not exclude the possibility of later misery” (Koloski 145). Kate Chopin ends the story with the idea that this may have been first time but is certainly not the last time will this happen.
Alcée, a planter and a man of the outer sphere enters Calixta’s domain with good intentions. Alcée, a man with much respect and honor for Calixta, greets her and acknowledges that she is a married woman. He greets her by name and properly asks permission to wait out of the storm on her porch. She properly addresses him as “M’siur Alcée” when she greets him. Alcee, who happened to live nearby, could have ridden on through the storm, but he did not. Instead, as Lawrence I. Berkove claims, Alcee’s “wish to escape a drenching in Calixta’s home is “innocent” (90).
...n Biloxi so he can pursue his affair with Calixta—though there is no evidence in the story that the two continue their affair—but his letter is nevertheless filled with love and regard for his wife and children. Similar to Calixta, Alce is satisfied. He can now be emotionally generous.