The Storm by Kate Chopin - Essay Example

They are however, restricted by their economic constraints due to the concentration of wealth in the hands of the men in the family, a feature of all patriarchal societies including the Victorian society. Even though the Victorian age was one of great economic progress for the countries of the west and the close of the eighteenth century marked a period that signaled a century of progress ahead for the United States of America, the people of these parts of the world struggled with doubts regarding many philosophical and moral issues that had been ignited by books such as The Origin of Species which questioned the very basis of religion and morality (Darwin).

During the end of the century, the ideals of the Victorian age had started to get questioned by writers who believed that radical change was necessary for the empowerment of certain sections of the society such as women. Writings like those of Kate Chopin are radical interventions in that sense. They question the ideas of the ‘angel of the hearth’ that prevailed during the Victorian era. Her writings explore the possibility of sexual tension and temptations within a repressive society like that of the Victorians.

“The Storm” is a story about the lives of two families and an incident of adultery that happens between Alcee and Calixta. The story is set while a storm rages on. Calixta, the wife of Bobinot and the mother of Bibi engages in an act of adultery with Alcee, the husband of another character named Clarisse. This happens while Clarisse is away from her husband and Calixta’s family is trapped in the storm. As soon as the storm ends, Alcee leaves and everybody’s family lives resume their normal courses.

The storm, in the story, serves various functions. While indicating the storm that rages on in the society, indicating the breakdown of the family system during the end of the nineteenth century in America, it also represents the turmoil that people of different social belongings have to undergo as a result of the changes in the gender roles of different people in the society. While being liberated through sexual union with Alcee, Calixta stirs up a storm in conservative Victorian society, symbolized by the physical storm outside her house.

The storm of the natural environment serves to keep Bobinot and Bibi away while the storm of passion develops between Alcee and Calixta. These two storms are compared as they are seen to be natural for every human, irrespective of their sexual belonging. The incarceration of women during the Victorian age within their homes was based on the belief that the home was a space that would offer women with no temptations. This belief in itself is paradoxical since if a woman was angelic (by Victorian standards), there would be no fear of temptation.

The fact of the existence of temptation proves that women were also likely to be tempted, even when they were at their home. In this respect, Chopin blurs the lines between mental and geographical spaces. Chopin also debunks the theories of womanhood that deny the sexuality of the woman. By portraying what Victorian society would perceive to be Calixta’s fall as a result of her sexual needs, she argues for a recognition of such needs by society and the institutions that exist in society. When she talks about “…her [Calixta’s] firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for the first time its birthright…” (Chopin), she initiates a debate that was scandalous as far as Victorian codes of morality was concerned.