Marriage According to Kate Chopin

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Kate Chopin is an experienced short story writer from the beginning of the 1900s, who was ahead of her time due to her amazing ability to take such complex characters that are easy to identify with and create amazing short stories in such a small amount of space. Marriage is a common theme in her stories, because a "wife" was a defining role in women's lives back then. The only thing is, marriage is not always shown to be flowery and romantic like writings before her. She looked at the painfully real side of how marriage can be good and bad, notably in The Story of an Hour and The Storm. Kate Chopin's attitude towards marriage is primarily negative because it can become dull and it can repress women, yet at the same time her attitude is positive due to the companionship it provides.

Marriage has passion in the initial stages, but that passion starts to diminish after time. The once magnificent, exciting new lover can start to become regular and conventional after a while. This is a problem that Kate Chopin's protagonist character had in The Storm. Alcee was a man who attracted the main female character, Calixta. The seduction of the rainstorm pulled the two together, because that seems to be the only seduction Calixta has had in a while. Calixta probably hasn't had an outlet in which to fully release her passionate urges because she seems to have a lot of passion to give in the description "The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached" (Chopin, The Storm 25). These two had obviously had some sexual tension for a while, but now they finally got the chance to set it f...

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...ty to see things rationally. Regret is something that none of the women feel. Shock and surprise (if not more extreme remorse when Mrs. Mallard realizes her husband's alive) kills her at the end of the story. Calixta had her affair and settles back down with her husband before anything is found out. Marriage was pleasing for these women before they had the opportunity at the freedom to express themselves- whether sexually or personally. They ended up finding out something about themselves that they weren't even aware of before. Marriage can be a form of repression and can become dull, but it can also be wonderful and a valued friendship. Current times are lucky times, especially for American women because now women are freer than ever to take charge--in or out of the bedroom.

Works Cited

Chopin, Kate. "The Storm." Classic Literature E-Text. 1 Mar. 2004

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