ipl-logo

Kate Chopin's Short Story 'The Storm'

579 Words3 Pages

Kate Chopin wrote her fictional story, “The Storm” in a time period where women were to be purely housewives. Their desires and needs were not considered in everyday living. This story contradicts those thoughts and show how nature happens together with the needs of personal satisfaction. Chopin uses symbolism of nature and the needs of people on how they must and will be satisfied in order to sustain life. There is a connection between the incoming thunder storm outside and the storm of emotions that are being felt between Calixta and Alcee. The intensity of the affair follows the pattern of the storm that is taking place outside. The approaching storm has been brewing for some time “… certain somber clouds that were rolling with sinister …show more content…

Her husband John, who is a doctor, rented a colonial mansion for the summer in hopes that this beautiful house will help his wife. Being a doctor he is prescribing her to have a “rest” period. John hopes that the change of scenery and being away from city life will help. He has forbid her to write which she feels will help her improve and also fobbing her to see anyone. John picked a room that the narrator did not like. She describes it as “The paint and the paper…It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide- plunge off at outrageous angles, destroying themselves in unheard of contradictions” (Gilman 487) The “rest” period she was prescribed in this room drove her to the brink of insanity over the several months that she was there. The woman seems to use the wallpaper as an image of her being trapped. Stuck in her own mind, she is seeing herself in the wallpaper, when she is ripping off the paper she maybe feels as she is ripping herself inside an internal struggle or conflict she is trying to break free

Show More
Related
1743 Words | 7 Pages

In this context, the storm symbolizes the slowly growing build-up of emotions in Calixta’s life and, in turn, her unawareness of them until they finish manifesting. Calixta’s attempt to physically ‘close’ herself off from the storm further represents how she tries to confine her feelings to herself; which Chopin utilizes to highlight Calixta’s growing mental confinement. Continuing with the theme of imprisonment, Chopin illustrates Calixta’s dedication to her family in order to emphasize her

Read More
859 Words | 4 Pages

Essay 3 Unfulfilling Marriage The Storm written by Kate Chopin takes place on a stormy day, with a cyclone approaching. Calixta sat upon a sewing table diligently sewing while her husband Bobinot and son Bibi went to the Friedhelmers store. Bobinot watched as the storm and using his conceses Bobinot decided to stay at the store to keep out of the storms path. Back at the home, Calixta was rushing to prepare for the storm, Alcee a towns man, came riding up asking for shelter until the cyclone passed.

Read More
1117 Words | 5 Pages

The word storm represents a violent disturbance of the atmosphere. Vigorous winds, large amounts of rain, thunder, lightning, and unpredictable temperatures. However, the word storm can take on various meanings when applied to life situations. Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” displays a story that focuses on two main characters, Calixta and Alcee. While the story centers around an actual storm that forces Bobinot, Calixta’s husband, from the house for an extended period of time, the inner storm that erupts for Calixta when Alcee arrives delineates a metaphoric storm.

Read More
871 Words | 4 Pages

The framing structure and imagery Kate Chopin utilizes in “The Storm,” focuses the reader on how a storm is a catalyst for a woman’s liberation, overpowering the moral dimensions of having an affair as a married woman in the 19th century. Kate Chopin is known for her truthful depictions of women’s lives during the 19th century, a time period when women were not equal to men. “The Storm” is no different, channeling the character of Calixta as a traditional housewife. In the opening frame of “The Storm,” the framing is immediately shifted towards Calixta from the description of her family dynamic.

Read More
1457 Words | 6 Pages

The metaphor “The Storm” reflects on Calixta’s underlying sexual urge, which resulted in her poor marital relationship with her husband. The storm becomes more intense and powerful with Calixta’s actions throughout the reading, which perhaps leads to the mysterious ending. The story begins with Bobint and Bibi, Calixta’s husband and three-year-old son, at a store probably far from home with the storm brewing in the background. Bobint points to the passing “sombre clouds that

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

While the storm is occurring it allows two lovers release many years of tension and that allows for peace after the storm. Chopin utilizes the storm in the beginning and end of the text, making the storm a physical representation of foreshadowing.

Read More
610 Words | 3 Pages

In "The Storm," Chopin delves into the subject of sexuality and its function in social interactions. Calixta, a married woman, had a brief affair with

Read More
85 Words | 1 Pages

Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” centers around a woman called Calixta; who has a sexual encounter with a former lover in midst of a storm. The storm centers on lost love and being in unwanted marriages. The raging storm outside the house unfolds simultaneously with the emotional and sexual passion between Calixta and Alcée. Throughout the story, Chopin inverts gender roles, specifically in terms of sexuality. Chopin presents that women should experience desire and act on it, just as men have been allowed to do

Read More
450 Words | 2 Pages

The Storm by Kate Chopin creates a twisted version of how the stereotypical role of a women in the past has parallels to their current assumed role. The idea that a women in the late 1800s could even have the realization that she was capable of cheating on her husband is unlikely; though it did happen. This story uses several convenient situations that propel Alcee and Calixta together, as shown through the title (The Storm) and the separation between Alcee and Calixta’s respectful partners. Chopin also uses symbolism to spur the aforementioned idea forward.

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

Within the first paragraph, the storm’s description was given and started some chain events. Starting out with “. sombre clouds that were rolling with sinister intention”, the first mention starts off with a slightly cryptic idea of how the

Read More
649 Words | 3 Pages

These were a resembling of what will happen in the story with some of the characters interaction with each other as the storm passes through the country. This relation to Calixta when she goes outside to retrieve the clothes that were drying outside and she ends up getting more than just the clothes that were hanging. While doing so she ends up bumping into her ex-lover and him asking to come inside while the storm passes by. This where Chopin decides to mix up the metaphor with their scene as it because real and the storm is blocked out with the two of them become passionate for each other like they were in the past. “Playing off the lightning was incessant.

Read More
513 Words | 3 Pages

Feminist analysis of The Storm The rise of the Women’s Movement during 1890’s encouraged many to grant all human beings the same fundamental rights despite one's gender. Traditionally, sexual passion, in a woman's aspect of life, was considered inappropriate and wrong in societal views. Yet, Chopin boldly addresses sexual desire in a woman with a strong feminist tone in The Storm, empowering female sexuality.

Read More
1232 Words | 5 Pages

Additionally, using the natural environment in this context sends the message that a women’s sexuality is a natural thing. Chopin shows that women have desires too. “The Storm” was written in the nineteenth century; however, it was not published immediately. In the nineteenth century, women were

Read More
1155 Words | 5 Pages

Enclosed to the four wall of this “big” room, the narrator says “the paint and paper look as if a boy’s school had used it” because “it is stripped off” indicating that males have attempted to distort women’s truth but somehow did not accomplish distorting the entire truth (Perkins Gilman, 43). When the narrator finally looked at the wall and the paint and paper on it, she was disgusted at the sight. The yellow wallpaper, she penned, secretly against the will of men, committed artistic sin and had lame uncertain curves that suddenly committed suicide when you followed them for a little distance. The narrator is forced to express her discomfort with the image to her husband, he sees it as an “excited fancy” that is provoked by the “imaginative power and habit of story making” by “a nervous weakness” like hers (Perkins Gilman, 46). Essentially, he believes that her sickness is worsening and the depth of her disease is the cause of the unexpected paranoia.

Read More
1043 Words | 5 Pages

Themes in “The Storm” Kate Chopin was an American author that wrote many stories that are based in Louisiana. She bases most of her work on women’s movement of the nineteenth century. One of Chopin’s prevalent stories called “The Storm”, focuses on the expectation of women’s marriage in the 1800’s. This story demonstrates numerous significant elements that give the reader a sense of what is going on throughout the story.

Read More

More about Kate Chopin's Short Story 'The Storm'

Open Document