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Theme analysis for "the story of an hour" by kate chopin
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Theme analysis for "the story of an hour" by kate chopin
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In the short story “The Storm”, Kate Chopin expresses the right all women have to be sexually fulfilled, through symbolism Chopin uses an unfulfilled marriage and captivating affair to show that undeniable passion triumphs all understanding, as well as excusing the actions of Calixta to achieve that level of passion. The story takes place in late 1800’s in southern town, Bobniot and Bibi are at the store when a big storm hits the town. Calixta wife to Bobniot and mother to Bibi is at home waiting for them to return. As the storm rolls in so does an old lover of Calixta’s; Alcee who seeks refuge from the storm in Calixta’s home. As Bobniot and Bibi waited out the storm, Calixta and Alcee engage in a passionate sexual affair. The affair evokes unspeakable passion and sexual awakening for both Alcee and Calixta. After the storm dissipates, Alcee leaves to go back to his wife and the boys return home. …show more content…
Although Calixta’s was not faithful in her marriage, she finally experienced passion and intimacy so strong that it surpassed all earthly understanding. Bobinot was a good and loyal husband, but his child-like behavior and inability to be sexual intimate with his wife led her to fulfill her needs elsewhere. Calixta just exercised her right as a woman to experience enigmatic passion, which changed her whole outlook on her boring, dull life. Calixta was sexually awakening by Alcee, her motive was not to spite he husband but merely fill the sexual void her husband could not. After the affair ends she goes about her life a changed woman, she is more alive, a better person, all equated to her finally receiving what she deserved in first place, unfathomable sexual
The world has always known that women were not given all of their rights. During the 19th century and even before then, most of the time women were just forced to do what they were told and what the society expected from them. Women didn’t get to make their own choices. They couldn’t fall in love, work, or be part of the society in any possible way. They were born to get old, marry, and take care of their husbands, house, and kids. Kate Chopin was one of the authors who wrote multiple stories about women and feminism. In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” Calixta was married, but when she saw Alcee she ignored the fact that she was married and she committed adultery with him. Kate Chopin describes how Calixta is unhappy with her married life, and how she finds happiness in adultery.
'The Storm' begins on a stormy spring day, with the protagonist Calixta at her sewing machine. She is alone, her husband Bobinot and son Bibi have gone to the store. Calixta seems to be a bored woman, confined to her duties as a housewife and mother. As the distant storm approaches she is unaware of what the storm brings, her former lover Alcee. Calixta allows Alcee into her home and opens her whole world to him. There is a connection between the storm that is going on outside and the storm of emotions going on in Calixta and Alcee. The weather sends Calixta into Alcee?s arms, he wraps his arms around her, and they can no longer hide their feelings for one another. They gave into their raging emotions and made love. Outside the weather was subsiding and Calixta and Alcee?s bodies felt relaxed and calmed. ?The rain was over; and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems.? (1614) His face beamed with light like the sun. The storm inside of her was satisfied and for a brief instant Calixta felt liberated from her ordinary dull life.
This story focuses on the extra-marital affair a housewife named Calixta has while her husband and son are away due to a storm. Although we learn that Calixta has an affair we also know that she doesn’t completely defy the Cult of Domesticity. From the story we get the idea that she remained pure until she married her husband and as Chopin tells us in page 689 “She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone,” this line suggest that even if she saw her past lover around she would not speak to him because neither of them were ever alone and they both didn’t want to disrespect their marriages. In addition Calixta seems to be a very good housewife and mother. She appears to be always tending her home. In page 689 we learn that “[sitting} at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. [Calixta] was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm.” She is so focused on her chores that she didn’t even notice a storm. For Calixta sewing and doing chores around the house is what is normal. She has assumed a role as a married woman and mother and she is fulfilling it. Before the affair you can say that by societies expectations she was a true woman, she kept her virginity until marriage, she makes sure her house chores are done, and she takes care of her family. Even after the affair she acts as if nothing has
All in all, Kate Chopin is able to combine two very different aspects of life and involve the relationship and symbolism of the storm to physical needs, sexual desires, and new and profound joy. By bringing these two parallel subjects together, the author is able to show the deeper meaning of one simple word, “storm,” and reveal a story that shows the attitudes and beliefs towards marriage and sex. In doing so, Chopin creates a strong point of view between these two subjects and allows for the view of regulations of sex and marriage to be shown throughout her short story, “The Storm.”
A storm defined by the Princeton dictionary means "violent weather condition, or a direct and violent assault " Kate Chopin personifies and creates imagery of a dark ominous storm heading from the distance with an ominous presence and dark intentions. “…sombre clouds that were rolling with sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a sullen, threatening roar.” The calm before the storm is all but gone, the storm pressing closer and closer, yet, Calixta is not doing much before the unavoidable storm hits her home. By the use of symbolism Kate Chopin shows that Calixta willingly opens herself up in the beginning of the story. “She unfastened her white sacque at the throat” what can this represent? This poor defenseless woman lets her neck out in the open; just like an antelope in the wild that is tired of ruing from a lion gives up by turning their neck towards their predator and giving up their jugular. Calixta is not deterred by the ideals of the time and decides to take her conventional life out of the norm. Rebecca Long-Kluckner from the Association of Young Journalists and writers, writes the folloing "Kate Chopin wrote in a time period that believed women did not even possess sexual desires, but only behaved pro...
The first thing I noticed about Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” is that it is utterly dripping with sexual imagery and symbolism. Our heroine, if you will, seems to be a woman with normally restrained passions and a well-defined sense of propriety, who finds herself in a situation that tears down her restraint and reveals the vixen within. I wonder if it was intentional that the name Calixta makes me think of Calypso – the nymph from Greek mythology. If half of the sexual symbolism I found in this story was intentional, Chopin was a genius. I was quite taken with the sexual imagery of the colors mentioned: white, and red. There is also mention a place called Assumption, while there’s nothing written on it in the bible, I believe it’s the popular opinion of those of Christian faiths, that Mary (Jesus’ mother) going to heaven was called “The Assumption.” Again, I cannot accept that as merely a happy coincidence, I believe its mention in the story was intentional. Finally, we have the storm, so central to the theme of the story that it was named for it. In this work, as well as others by Chopin, there is a recurring theme of infidelity, or women behaving in ways that society generally doesn’t accept, women behaving badly, if you will, I cannot help but wonder if Kate Chopin used her writing to express desires that she would not otherwise have expressed.
The short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, deals with the subject of adultery. The story takes place in the early 1900’s. There are two main characters, Calixta (the wife) and Alcee (the former lover). Alcee must take refuge from a passing storm in Calixta’s house, while he is there the two end up making love while Calixta’s husband and son have to wait out the storm at the local store. By doing this Chopin implies the theme that is, adultery is natural and does not necessarily have negative consequences. Through out the story the constant changing of imagery plays a great role in the development of characters and their ability to demonstrate the theme.
Among the several stories of star-crossed lovers that flood the history of writing over the course of many years, lies a pair of stories; “’Cadian Ball” and “The Storm” written by Kate Chopin. These two stories truly represent a common theme of a longing for freedom and the importance of class which encompasses many of Kate Chopin’s stories. The “’Cadian Ball” and ‘The Storm” tell the story of yet another duo, named Calixta and Alcee, who are completely in love with a thousand obstacles surrounding them. All the pair wants is to be free of prior commitments and logical thoughts, but, in the end, the story, of course, does not turn out the way they had hoped. Once again, Kate Chopin shows hope for the character’s freedom and possible willingness to forget the burden of social class,
It eventually passes over, “turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems”. Readers are shown the nonchalant acts of infidelity by Calixta and Alcee. Satisfaction and passionate lovemaking have been achieved, though in an unconventional way. Calixta is challenged by the traditional roles of marriage and accepts the opportunity to travel into a world where there are none. The storm shows freedom, passion, and power, synonymous with the ways of Calixta and Alcee’s lovemaking. When the rain is gone, there is happiness; when the deed is done, there is a great pleasure. Campbell’s formula, though seen in many mythological texts, is versatile, capable of showing real-world quests and challenges. Using the roles of marriage and its confining potential, Chopin’s “The Storm” serves as a great example for self-discovery, by the Hero’s Journey
Storytelling has been a common pastime for centuries. Over the years it has evolved into different styles containing different themes. Kate Chopin, a well-known author of the 20th century, wrote stories about the secrets in women’s lives that no one dared to speak of. Her work was not always appreciated and even considered scandalous, but it opened up a world that others were too afraid to touch. In Chopin’s story “The Storm,” a woman has an affair that causes an unlikely effect. The story’s two themes are portrayed greatly through an abundance of imagery and symbolism, along with the two main characters themselves.
Kate Chopin cleverly employs an omniscient narrative approach in relating The Storm, so the facts presented impact and shape the reader’s response to the couples’ adulterous affair. The narrator focuses on the romantic relationship that existed between Alcee and Calixta before her five-year marriage to her husband. The narrator recalls that "in Assumption Alcee had kissed Calixta and kissed her until his senses would well nigh fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight" (Chopin 363). The narrator consciously constructs in the mind of the reader the idea that Alcee and Calixta were not immoral fornicators during their youthful romantic connection, but on the contrary, their moral value and practice more than parallel that of society’s and had been far above reproach. The narrator further validates that "Calixta was an immaculate dove in those days, and she was still inviolate; a passionate creature whose very defenselessness had made her defense, ...
“The Storm” by Kate Chopin states that societies should not keep two people who have the potential for consummate love apart even though they may be divided by class because doing so would leave the two people unhappy and unfulfilled. In “The Storm,” the characters Calixta and Bobinot do not seem to be happy and fulfilled in the marriage. This inference can see this if we try to see how they fit in the Love Triangle created by Robert Sternberg which measures if two people have consummate love for each other. Before describing how Calixta and Bobinot do not appear to be happy and fulfilled, it is necessary to explain the Love Triangle. It is necessary to remember the theme of “The Storm” is that people who have consummate love for each other should not be kept apart or else they will be unhappy and unfulfilled.
Many short story writers have written about the gender and role of woman in society. Some of these stories express what Barbara Walter calls, “The Cult of True Womanhood” meaning the separation of both man and woman in social, political and economic spheres. In order to be considered a “true woman” woman were to abide by the set of standards that were given to her. Women were expected to live by the four main principal virtues - piety, purity, submissiveness, and domestication. In Kate Chopin’s short story, “The Storm,” Calixta the main female character breaks away from “The Cult of True Womanhood” when she has a sexual encounter with her past lover Alcée. The storm goes through many twists and turns that tie with their adulterous actions. Although she breaks away from the four main principal virtues, she in the end is considered to be pure innocent of heart because the action in which occurred happened instantly, and as white as she was, she was taken away from her innocence.
Calixta and Alce, the two main characters in the short story “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, are sexual, mature, and knowing adults. By having them discover amazing sex outside their marriages, they return to their own marriages renewed. Chopin openly condones adultery due to the fact that the characters are not punished and in the end “everyone was happy” (paragraph 40) . A common theme of fresh sexuality and desire is seen in this story though symbols and other literary elements. Kate Chopin is an American author that wrote short stories and novels in the 20th century.
She lambasted society for its perpetual close-mindedness in a time when righteousness was considered to be an attribute, and she helped to generate more enlightened attitudes among both the women and men of her time. In The Storm, the character of Calixta is unable to fulfill society's standards of virtue, despite her perceived purity by her lover Alcee. When Alcee professes, "If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate" (p. 34), he is basically saying that just because a woman is not chaste, does not mean she is not pure of heart. After all, it was Calixta's marriage which had stripped her of her chastity status.