Analysis of The Storm by Kate Chopin Four Part Outline: - Essay Example

The Storm During Queen Victoria’s reign 1837-1901 the roles of men and women were very different than they are today. Women at that time were presumed to be a perfect model for their husbands, one that was pure and chaste, looked after the home and did not work. While men were considered to be sexually dominant and proactive women were considered as sexually inert and not receptive to temptation. Living a life of domesticity women were deemed to be safe from the sexual advances of other men, protected by their husbands and living in a gilded cage.

In ‘The Storm’ Kate Chopin scratches the gold paint from the cage to expose the hypocrisy of such gender roles. Chopin’s short story ‘The Storm’ relays an adulterous affair between Calixta and Alcee. The story commences with Calixta’s husband Bibinot and son Bibi watching the onset of a storm while waiting in a store where they were buying shrimp ‘which Calixta was very fond’ of. Searching for shelter from the storm Alcee approaches Calixta’s house whereupon Calixta invites him to ‘come 'long in’; there begins the steamy sexual encounter between them.

The tempest of the natural storm lays parallel to the inner storm of passion being experienced by Calixta; who was unaware of the onset of the approaching storm while preoccupied with mundane household chores and sewing. Just as the storm provided by nature layed dormant to start and gradually increased in intensity until it became a raging crescendo of furor that “filled all visible space with a blinding glare … to … invade the very boards they stood upon”, so too does Calixta’s inner storm of passion that “penetrated and found response in depths” of Alcee’s sensuality.

The heights of ecstasy apparent within Calixta were analogous with the climax of the storm and as the storm subsided and the “growl of the thunder was distant and passing” so too was Calixta’s inner storm “inviting them to drowsiness and sleep”. Temptation knocked on Calixta’s door, dismantling the idea that women were protected from the outside world within their gilded cage of domesticity and Calixta very easily gave in to that temptation; when Alcee “touched her breasts they gave themselves up in quivering ecstasy, inviting his lips” and “her firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for the first time its birthright”.

Chopin’s message within this short story illustrates the irony of stereotypes and the idealistic notions of women being any different than men; it contradicts the very ideals of society’s prototypical gender roles at that time and portrays Calixta as a woman who surrenders to the temptation that enters her gilded cage and then able to resume her everyday life as the devoted wife and mother without guilt or remorse. Chopin’s message that women possessing sexual desires and wants are just as open and susceptible to temptation as men seems rationale to me.

Throughout history society has accepted that men possess more sexual prowess than women and that if a woman succumbs to her sexuality outside of marriage she is a fallen being, wanton to the guiles of evil, but Calixta lays testament to the irony of such beliefs. Nobody should be prevented from fulfilling their own dreams and desires and everyone is entitled to their birthright; if placed in a cage, whether real or imagined the caged bird will find its way out, spread its wings and escape. Numerous experiences in life involving friends and family expose the reality of such convictions and lead me to believe that nobody is free from temptation and nobody deserves to be suppressed.

Men can learn that genders are equal and that they cannot expect anyone, whether male or female to be any different in terms of temptation and sexuality than themselves. They must understand that although they may be in a relationship or marriage they do not possess their partner, and that they should conduct themselves in the same way they would want their partner to act.