Chopin

I was fascinated by Chopin's stories. They were very captivating and really express another side of the human experience that we have not seen in other works we have read. Borrowing from the prompt that was posted I do see the strong references to sexuality, marriage, and intimacy. Reading a story like “The Storm” in today’s society is no surprise and appears as novice work compared to the sexually charged films that are produced. However, when it was written we must recall that it was done so in a time in which women were held to different standards. During the late 1800’s of southern Louisiana a woman could not vote, did not have rights and much less had any place expressing her sexuality as a woman. For Calixta, in “The Storm” Chopin makes evident that her desire can be embraced regardless of society’s standards of virtue and that an act of nature is inevitable in its physical sense as well as its literary setting. Alcee, her lover also points out, “if she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate, characterizing her as pure of heart regardless of her state of chastity. Again, we are starting to see a new acceptance of women not only as mothers and domestic caretakers, but also as lovers. The idea of the storm is very interesting because it is a part of nature as is a woman’s sexuality and plays out as an extended metaphor throughout the story. In essence, the literary struggle of man vs. nature is at play.