Literary Analysis Of The Storm By Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin’s short story “The Storm” exposes the audience to the unfair realities of love and sex during the late nineteenth century. In this story, unhappy marriages, and old, unrequited love draw the two main characters together in a secret affair during a violent storm. Set somewhere in the south of Louisiana during the 1890’s, The Storm gives us a glimpse into the lives of women that many literary works written in that time period shy away from. The purpose of this short story is to symbolize the repression of women, and how they were forced to hide their sensual natures to maintain the wholesome and motherly image that society required of them.

Chopin is most widely known for her short stories concerning the topics of love and repressed

At a young age, she insisted that she would not blindly follow through with the expectations of the time, instead, would marry for love and love only. She wrote, “I am going to be married, . . . married to the right man.” Her biography tells us that she herself had one affair that we know of, shortly after the death of her husband. This and the affair that takes place in The Storm suggests that she (Chopin) doesn’t exactly believe that adultery is inherently wrong and is just a natural part of life.

Chopin’s refusal to conform to societal expectations flows through her writing, giving her female characters a voice they would never have had outside of the paper on which their stories were written. Chopin’s personal connections too many of her female characters are even more so related because of their shared cultural heritage. The daughter of a Frenchwoman, Chopin grew up speaking both French and English, while the many years she spent living in New Orleans with her Creole husband gave her a very close and personal look into the lives and culture of the people (Koloski). Chopin spent most of her life challenging patriarchal society, using her platform as a writer to express her dissatisfaction with the treatment and resignation of women to conform to the life expected of them.

Like her other stories, Chopin writes The Storm from the

Calixta and Bobinôt are Acadians, descendants of French-American exiles from Acadia, Nova Scotia, who were driven from their homes by the British in 1755. Most of the Creoles in Chopin’s stories are comparatively wealthy, usually landowners or merchants. Most of the Acadians (or ‘Cajuns) in the stories are much poorer, living off the land, farming or fishing or working for the Creoles. Clarisse takes her higher social status as a Creole seriously and thinks Alcée has no business at a ‘Cadian ball. “Nice conduc’ for a Laballière,” she says. She understands, though, that it is common for a Creole man to appear at such get togethers, perhaps in search of a liaison with a ‘Cadian woman. It would be unusual for a Creole woman to attend a ‘Cadian ball