More Than Just a Story Essay Example for Free

more(prenominal) Than Just a Story EssayJoanna Bartees life-sustaining essay of Kate Chopins on the spur of the moment fable, The Storm, maintains that the entire story is an allegorical look at feminism and sexual reservations in the Nineteenth Century. She maintains that the impel is a parable for the pent up sexual energy that culminates in an extramarital affair while Calixtas husband and son ride out the powerful pull at a small grocers store nearby. Bartee points out that Chopin was in touch with her own feelings regarding sexuality and through this story she was able to express her views though she chose not to make them known through publication in her lifetime. Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar the opposite is also true. Bartee makes an effective public debate that her assessment is correct by backing up her ideas with pertinent blocks of dialogue from the story and by simply pointing out the obvious. To begin Bartee says that the title of Chop ins short story has a dual symbolizeing, and though the tale unfolds during a raging tempest, the storm of the title is representative of repressed human female sexuality. turn Alcee comes to the theater 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 initially the story begins with just the facts that can be gleaned from a read, assuming the reader is capable of taking a bit of latitude. She tells us that the ii 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 genuinely said in the story when she declargons, Calixta and Alcee, had a flirtation several years before the story takes place, but each made a more fitting marriage to some ane else and they have not seen each other s ince, (Bartee). It is known from the story that they had a flirtation but as for each making a more advantageous marriage, that seems to be speculation. Joanne Bartees essay addresses the title, saying that The Storm is metaphor for the pent up passions of a Victorian period.It seems logical that this is the cause, 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 two. Then she says, The rain was over and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems. Calixta, on the gallery, watched Alcee ride away, (Chopin III-1) to describe the parting of the two, saying that the storm of passion had eb write out.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 seen as symbolic of feminine sexuality and passion. Bartee points out that Claxita is the nucleus of domesticity as the story opens, totally un aware(predicate) of an impending storm. This storm will not only be the one of nature but rather the storm of her pent up desires, released when her source paramour arrives unexpectedly. She is sewing, while her husbands Sunday clothes are airing out on the porch.Bartee believes this is an allusion to polite and graceful society in that Sunday clothes can be taken to mean those clothes that her husband would wear to church, accompanied by his wife and child. archeozoic in her critique Bartee says that the entire short story is filled with illustrations of how the storm is the driving force and main theme of Chopins story. She also points out that the story was published posthumously, years later, indicating, perhaps, a reluctance to share her views with a Victorian public, believing it was too graphic to be read with her name attached to it.While it is mild by todays stand ards, at the time that it was written it must have been considered a bit risque to have a charwoman author put her name to a story to patently full of not only secret sexual desires and passions but infidelity and adultery. The idea that the storm passes just as the tryst is completed and Alcee is riding way is certainly an indication that the natural 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 brewing in his wifes psyche. Bartee believes that Bobinot is aware of the situation, though this seems to be conjecture on her part. If this is the case then Bobin ot 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 nigh 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 seeing 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 absolutely realizing the situation she got up hurriedly and went about closing windows and threshold, (Chopin II-1). This, Bartee implies, is the foreshadowing that a bad storm is about to blow, and it may overwhelm her. She is leery of how bad it is ou tlet to get and takes some nominal precautions to protect 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 paint a pictures.Alcee asks for permission to take shelter on Calixtas porch, but they both quickly realize that such shelter is totally ineffective against the fury of the storm, which, obviously at this point is not only refers to the weather 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 attitude toward both the old flame and to her duties as wife and mother. He expressed an intention to remain outside, but it was soon apparent that he might as well have been out in the open, (Chopin II-5).The two then find it appropriate to put something under the door, to further isolate them from the outside world. The description of her husbands clothi ng, 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 peril that Calixta feels concerning the approach of the storm.He husbands intimate possessions are in danger 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 correctly assesses the description Chopin gives the reader of symbolically putting away a cotton sheet.This sheet, 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 mention 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 passionate union toward which the story has been leading.Bartee quotes lines from the story saying that not only do the two lovers lack any remor se, 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 observe 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 willing 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 relieved 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 More Than Just a Story Retrieved 5-23-07 from http//facultystaff. vwc. edu/cbellamy/Southern%20Literature/SL%20Chopi n. htm Chopin, K. The Storm 1898