Hi, I'm Rebecca Balcarcel. Let's take a look at "The Storm," a short story by Kate Chopin.
The plot here is very simple. A huge storm comes in, two married people have an affair,
and then everyone lives happily ever after. That's
it. So we could talk about the symbolism here, and some of the language she uses, but I want
to focus on themes, and what Kate Chopin is really doing
here in this story. Why does she write this story? What is she trying to get across? Well,
several things, I think. For one thing, she's writing at the end of the 1800s, when women
are not even allowed to own property. So we see that she
is pointing out how strict the roles for women are. So one issue raised here is the roles
of women, especially the role of wife and mother. When we
first meet Calixta, she is deep into the duties of being a wife and mom. She's sewing, she's
been washing, 'cause she's got clothes drying out there on the gallery, which is the porch
area. She's just been working, working, working,
and she's working so hard that she doesn't even notice the approach of the storm. So
she's been denying, symbolically, the storm is being ignored.
She's been denying some part of herself, some force inside of her that she's been not paying
attention to. We do that at our peril, because if we ignore parts of ourselves and forces
within us, then we don't live a full life. So here she
is in this wife/mother role, and it is consuming her. Okay, then what else? We've got the storm
as a force that shakes things up, cleans out the
atmosphere, you might say, and leaves her feeling really good. So after the storm, after
the affair, she's happy in her wife/mother role. She cooks up this meal, she makes coffee,
she accepts the little gift of the shrimp can with a lot
of humor and sweetness. And her husband and son are thrilled, like, oh, wow, we thought
she was going to be mad at us because she's so strict about
having everything clean, and we're full of mud, and she's going to get onto us. But no,
she's happy, she's relaxed, she's generous. She actually is a better wife and mom after
the affair. Is Kate Chopin saying women should have affairs
so they can stand to be married? I hope not. I think the bigger message is that when we
deny our needs, and they may be sexual needs, but I think in
a larger sense our inner needs, the body, the mind, the soul... As whole people, we
have needs. And if we don't express ourselves and we don't fulfill ourselves, we have nothing
to give. So I think that's a second important theme here,
in the story. Not only are the roles that we play... They can become all-consuming,
and that's dangerous. But secondly, if we don't fulfill ourselves,
we run the risk of becoming empty husks of people, instead of being filled with life
and energy. We will just kind of shrivel up, and she is so rejuvinated by this affair,
and by the storm. She comes to her own family with a new energy
and vigor. And everybody's excited and happy about that. So this sexuality here, for Kate
Chopin, is something natural, something that needs
expression, that needs to be acknowledged, not ignored. She was ignoring the storm at
first, but now don't ignore it. Own it, admit it, find a way to healthfully express it,
and then you'll be a happier person. Now what about the morality,
though, of having an affair? Well, uh, we can't deny that these people have both cheated
on their spouses, and according to society, that's very
bad. And according to the church, that's very bad. In fact we have mention of the church,
just briefly, because she takes down the Sunday clothing that she has washed. When she takes
down her husband's Sunday clothes, she's kind of taking
away the church's restrictions for the moment. For the duration of the storm, this will be
out of the picture. So the church, here, for Chopin, in
this story, is really one more layer of duty, and one more layer of repression for the woman.
So we need to let the church go in order for her to fulfill herself, and then be able to
do better, being a mom and a wife. Now, is that saying
that we should never have any rules, and we should all be unfaithful? No, I don't think
Chopin is talking about massive free-for-all sexual freedom,
but she is saying that these strictures and these rules do cost something when a woman
like Calixta has done the dutiful thing. She didn't marry the guy she was really attracted
to, Mr. Alce, and they have history, as we see in the story.
No. She didn't marry him. She was a good girl. She married somebody from her own class. She
has a decent marriage, a friendly marriage. She has a
son. She loves him. But that's not all she is. I think Chopin is saying women are not
only the wife and the mom, and when women are repressed and not allowed to fulfill themselves
and also express themselves, then they are becoming
more shrewish and less happy and less able to give.
So we need to be able to give... Chopin is showing what can happen if we are kind of
pushed into a situation where the only way to get the fulfillment is through some immoral
means. What would be better is if we had a society that allowed
her to do that. For example, marry the guy she really wants to, instead of following
the rules about class. Or if she could somehow be fulfilled in
other ways... But her needs aren't being met in this whole system, see. It's not so much
that having an affair is evil and bad, you know, which she doesn't say, 'cause she doesn't
judge these characters at all. It's more like the system
she has to live in is evil and bad. Or a life, if you choose a life that is too structured
or too narrow for your soul, that is not going to work.
So that's the real problem. Now, being driven to forsake your marraige vows, or being driven
to use an affair as the way to rejuvinate yourself is a sad situation. It's terrible
that it's come to that. What would be nice is if we had a
society that didn't make that necessary. But here's this woman in a restrictive time period,
where this is her only way to get any kind of fulfillment
here, especially sexual fulfillment, which, for Chopin, counts as something that needs
to be acknowledged. You can't get away from this force inside of yourself. You have to
acknowledge it, do something with it. Sexuality is not to be
ignored or villified, but in fact, she enjoys sex, this character. It's a healthy, sexual
act. This is not violence, or anything like that. It's a really
beautiful, sexual experience that they have together. It's very mutual, and it's just
a healthy thing. It's a fulfilling and happy thing. But it's not allowed, culturally, morally.
Unfortunately, it's what they both need, and when they go
back to their spouses, it has good effects. Now maybe we could blame the storm. They weren't
looking for each other. The storm forced them together.
That's true. As a plot device, Chopin has let the storm give them an opportunity to
be together. But the storm itself, the force, the natural force of it, is like sexuality,
the natural force of it, that cannot be just ignored and denied.
It must be withstood or accomodated or acted upon somehow, or we're going to divorce ourselves
from ourselves. We can't keep a portion of ourselves
separate. We've got to be whole people. Our sexuality has to be part of it. In the role
of mother/wife, sometimes sexuality is sidelined and not included in the identity of a woman.
So I think Chopin is talking about that too. Sexuality
is a force that needs to be acknowledged. Healthy sexuality, especially. And the roles
of mother and wife. And then also the issues about marriage.
All of these are being raised in this story, and I appreciate her candor here. She's writing
so honestly about this, at a time when it was a taboo subject. In fact, Chopin didn't
even try to publish this short story, because she knew
it would be totally scandalous, and it would shock people.
I hope you enjoyed exploring the themes of this story with me. There's so much more we
could talk about, like the symbolism of the pants, and, uh, why is it canned shrimp, you
know, in a can, all tamely in a can. But let's leave it here
for now. Join me for another video sometime.