More Than Just a Story Essay

Joanna Bartees critical essay of Kate Chopins inadequate report card, The Storm, main(prenominal)tains that the entire story is an allegorical look at feminism and cozy reservations in the Nineteenth Century. She maintains that the storm is a metaphor for the pent up intimate energy that culminates in an extramarital affair while Calixtas husband and son ride aside the actual storm at a small grocers investment trust nearby. Bartee points appear that Chopin was in colour with her own feelings regarding sexuality and through this story she was able to express her views though she chose non to make them cognise through publication in her lifetime.Freud tell that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar the opposite is in like military manner true. Bartee makes an sound argument that her assessment is fructify by backing up her opinions with apposite blocks of dialogue from the story and by simply pointing come forth the obvious. To begin Bartee says that the claim of Chopins myopic story has a dual meaning, and though the drool unfolds during a raging storm, the storm of the ennoble is representative of repressed gay female sexuality.While Alcee comes to the home of Calixta seeking refuge from the storm it is more a rhetorical device to enable the plot to unfold as it does. The physical storm is irrelevant to the actual theme, which is sexuality and human desire. Bartee says that ab initio the story begins with just the incidents that can be gleaned from a order, assuming the indorser is capable of taking a blot of latitude. She tells us that the 2 main characters, Calixta and Alcee, were once lovers and have now met in the present time of the short story, during a powerful storm.She is reading more into this assessment than is actually give tongue to in the story when she decl bes, Calixta and Alcee, had a flirtation several years earlier the story takes place, only if each do a more satisfactory marriage to someone else and they have non seen each other since, (Bartee). It is known from the story that they had a flirtation but as for each reservation a more advantageous marriage, that seems to be speculation. Joanne Bartees essay addresses the title, truism that The Storm is metaphor for the pent up passions of a Victorian period.It seems lawful that this is the case, for the author flaunts it at every opportunity. She says, They did not heed the crashing torrents, and the roar of the elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms, (Chopin II-20), to describe the passion of the devil. consequently she says, The rain was over and the sun was turning the glistening green human into a palace of gems. Calixta, on the gallery, watched Alcee ride away, (Chopin III-1) to describe the parting of the two, formulation that the storm of passion had ebbed.Bartee quotes critic Robert Wilson as well, saying that Wilson believes, Chopins title refers to nature, which is symbolically feminine the storm can therefore be s een as symbolic of feminine sexuality and passion. Bartee points out that Claxita is the essence of domesticity as the story opens, totally un sensible of an impending storm. This storm will not but be the one of nature but rather the storm of her pent up desires, released when her former paramour arrives unexpectedly. She is sewing, while her husbands sunshine clothes are airing out on the porch.Bartee believes this is an allusion to polite and veracious society in that Sunday clothes can be interpreted to mean those clothes that her husband would wear to church, accompanied by his married woman and child. Early in her critique Bartee says that the entire short story is modify with illustrations of how the storm is the driving force and main theme of Chopins story. She withal points out that the story was published posthumously, years later, indicating, perhaps, a reluctance to divvy up her views with a Victorian public, believing it was too graphic to be read with her conju re attached to it.While it is mild by todays standards, at the time that it was written it must have been considered a bit risque to have a woman author put her name to a story to obviously full of not only enigma sexual desires and passions but infidelity and adultery. The idea that the storm passes just as the tryst is comp allowed and Alcee is riding way is certainly an indication that the pictorial storm and the storm of passions, which have obviously been sated, are one and the same. Bartee points out that Calixtas husband, Bobinot, wisely waits out the storm at the general store just as he avoids the passions of wife as well.He is aware of what the natural storm can do and does not intend to let it batter him, likewise, Bartee says, he is aware of the passions of which his wife is capable and he does not mean to allow himself to be battered that the emotional storm create from raw stuff in his wifes psyche. Bartee believes that Bobinot is aware of the shoes, though this see ms to be reflect on her part. If this is the case accordingly Bobinot is hiding from the passions of a wife by avoidance, and there is not enough information given to make that claim.Bartee points out the obvious with clarity and most of what she says seems logical, but at this point she appears to be taking a leap of imagination that is not justified by the text of Kate Chopin. Calixta seems content to do her familial chores, tending to her home and eyesight to her husbands clothes. Bartee says at this point that many of the chores that she has to do are done in obvious frustration and are also symbols of the sexual repression of this Nineteenth Century homemaker. This may be the correct assessment as Chopin says that Calixta, unfastened her white sacque at the throat. It began to grow dark, and suddenly actualizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and opening, (Chopin II-1). This, Bartee implies, is the foreshadowing that a heavy(a) storm is about to blow, and it may overwhelm her. She is leery of how bad it is expiration to get and takes some nominal precautions to shelter her home from the approaching storm. Bartee does not address the symbolism inherent in the actions of Calixta during the initial meeting of the two former intimates.Alcee asks for permission to take shelter on Calixtas porch, but they both quickly realize that such shelter is totally ineffectual against the fury of the storm, which, obviously at this point is not only refers to the persist but more pointedly, to the raging emotions beginning to build in the man and woman. When Calixta invites Alcee into the home of her family it is virtually a paradigm shift in her military strength toward both the old flame and to her duties as wife and mother. He denotative an intention to remain outside, but it was soon apparent that he expertness as well have been out in the open, (Chopin II-5).The two then find it appropriate to put something under the d oor, to further seclude them from the outside world. The description of her husbands clothing, intimate possessions, which cover and protect a man, are exposed outside the home. There is a real possibility that they can be lost, damaged or destroyed, just as her marriage can be lost, damaged or destroyed by her emotional storm of passion. This symbolism of them hanging outside, exposed to the elements, Bartee says, is symbolic of the risk of exposure that Calixta feels concerning the approach of the storm.He husbands intimate possessions are in risk of infection of being destroyed or lost. Bartee writes, They are in danger of blowing away from the strong winds that are approaching with the storm, (Bartee). Alcee grabs Bobinots pants, which, Bartee says Wilson describes as a subversion of the constraints which Calixta, as a married woman, should be feeling. Bartee likewise justly assesses the description Chopin gives the reader of symbolically putting away a like sheet.This shee t, that covers a marriage bed, is in sight when Alcee arrives, but as the two characters talk, Calixta pointedly puts the sheet out of sight, and, if could be inferred, out of mind. Bartee does not credit that the author describes the view she has of the marriage bed itself and that Calixta is aware that the sons sleeping couch are in view as well. This could also be taken as symbolic of the intimate glimpse Calixta is permitting a virtual stranger, an outsider to her family, to have of her home and private life.Chopin describes the scene thus, The door stood open, and the room with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious, (Chopin II-9). Bartees opinion is that in symbolically putting away the cotton sheet, an object of domesticity, getting it out of their sight, Calixta is now symbolically clearing her mind, removing any obstacles that might stand in the way of the two as they move inexorably toward the inevitable loving union toward which the s tory has been leading.Bartee quotes auras from the story saying that not only do the two lovers lack any remorse, they feel renewed and invigorated by their act. Bartee says, Chopin writes, So the storm passed and everyone was happy. Bartee does not mention what seems to be more than a casual comment immediately prior to that line. Chopins penultimate line reads, Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than voluntary to forego for a while. This refers to the wife of Alcee, who, it seems, although unaware of the details of the tryst and the storm, has profited from it.The fact that everyone is happy must therefore include Alcees wife, and she is temporarily meliorate of the more mundane of her wifely duties. Still, Bartee makes an effective argument that her view is correct by backing up her opinions with pertinent blocks of dialogue from the story and by simply pointing out the obvious. Works Cited Bartee, J. The Storm M ore Than Just a Story Retrieved 5-23-07 from http//facultystaff. vwc. edu/cbellamy/Southern%20Literature/SL%20Chopin. htm Chopin, K. The Storm 1898