Kate Chopin’s View on Death and Freedom in The Story of an Hour

Abstract
The Story of an Hour, written by the American woman writer, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) fully shows us the tremendous
conflict between life and death among those women who had the more self-awareness, the less social living space
according to the established social norms 100 years ago in a dramatic way. The heroine’s strong desire for freedom and
sudden death remind us of the philosophical thought on life and death.
Keywords: Kate Chopin, self-awareness, death, freedom, The Story of an Hour
"The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death" and “birth and death” are “the two strangest”,
for “death is coming even as birth has come, but, similarly, we do not know what it is like. Our final experience, like
our first, is conjectural. We move between two darknesses”. So it’s no wonder that many novelists often take birth
and death as the themes of their novels. It is also reflected in Kate Chopin’s The Story of an Hour.
On April 19, 1894, Kate Chopin wrote “The Story of an Hour,” a truly remarkable tale about a subdued wife’s vision of
intending to live only for herself. Louise Mallard, who suffers from heart trouble, is gently told the news of her
husband’s death in a railway-accident. She “wept at once, with sudden, wild abandonment”; then, “when the storm of
grief had spent itself she went away to her room alone.” As she sat looking as the spring life outside her window, her
young face, “whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength,” showed that something was coming to her
which she tried in vain to hold back:
When she abandoned herself, a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under
her breath: “free, free, free!”…She did not stop to ask if it were not a monstrous joy that held her. A clear and exalted
perception enabled perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial…
She saw…a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms
out to them in welcome.
There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory…But Mr.
Mallard had not been involved in the accident at all, and his unannounced return an hour later proved fatal to his wife:
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease - of joy that kills.
Louise Mallard was among that kind of women who were different from the traditional ones such as her sister. Facing
the unexpectedly bad news, she was of course sad, however, at the same time she felt free, body and soul free. Her
sister, Josephine, reminded us of her conventional thought that women should attach themselves to their husbands.
She told Mrs. Mallard the shocking news in broken sentences, veiled hints that revealed in half concealing.
Apparently, she would thought Mrs. Mallard could not bear the sadness when her sister closed herself in the room. In
fact, Mrs. Mallard was drinking in the very elixir of life through that open window though she had blocked the door.
This astonishing story strongly indicates that how deeply Mrs. Mallard desired her own freedom, but there was a
conflict between her life and death. She had her own contemplation about life such as love, marriage and freedom. But
it was not an appropriate thing over hundred years ago for a lady to have her own ideas against the established ones.
The story suggests us that Mrs. Mallard could live well if she had been a traditional lady, but she was not. On hearing
the news, she was not alone with her sister and her husband’s friend, Richard, but she was lonely. In real life, at that
time, the social living space was large, but for Mrs. Mallard so small. No one could share her thoughts which were free.
Therefore, she shut the door shedding those who disturbed her thinking even if they were her sister and her husband’s
friend, Richards.
“It is certain that ‘Death’ is coming”, since the ‘dying’ of others is something that one experiences daily. Death is an
undeniable ‘fact of experience”. However, the thing seems a little different to Mrs. Mallard. It does not mean she would
not die; anyway she had her own path “towards-death”. Simone de Beauvoir has emphasized that she does not need to
justify her existence as a wife and mother and that she can largely leave the responsibility for her fate to the man. Indeed
the moment Mrs. Mallard feels it more important to be an individual than to be a woman (or at least a mother-woman),
but she is in deep water. Unassisted, she has to create her own role and status and define her aims; she must fight
society’s opposition as well as her own feeling of insecurity and guilt, and—more than a man—she suffers and assumes
sole responsibility for her life, which then depends on her own efforts; freedom becomes something of a negative
condition and she herself is indeed a solitary soul.
Looking into Mrs. Mallard’s psychological state, we could find that the emotional change must be described as
the development of an increasingly resistant barrier between the real external world and that world which is most
authentic in her experience - the inner world of her fantasies. Though in her deep heart there is an ardent longing for
freedom and for female self-assertion, and beneath her reserve lies a strain of romanticism and rebelliousness, she has
no chance to release from what she evidently felt as repression or frustration, thereby freeing forces that had lain
dormant in her. Maybe it is such reasons that cause her heart trouble. Only when she was told the news of her
husband’s sudden death did she breathe the free and fresh air:
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no
powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a
private will upon a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime as she
looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him - sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter! What could love, the unsolved
mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest
impulse of her being!
“Free! Body and soul free!” she kept whispering.
Edmund Wilson discerningly points to “The Story of an Hour” as an example of the many unsatisfactory marriages
in Kate Chopin’s fiction. Clearly, Mrs. Mallard, like Edna Pontellier in Chopin’s The Awakening, leads a “dual life -
that outward existence which conforms, the inward life which questions” since her social role conflicts with her true
identity.
During the course of her fancy running riot along those days ahead of her, Mrs. Mallard is gradually standing aloof
from the social life and the people around her such as her husband, her sister, and her husband’s friend, Richards.
Perhaps she can derive some comfort from them, yet it is far from enough. Kate Chopin’s view of life is to a
large extent independent of such important currents of thought as idealism, socio-economic determinism, and even
religion. Her attitude illustrated by Mrs. Mallard comes close to that of existentialism. She seems to say that Mrs.
Mallard has a real existence only when she follows her own laws, and through conscious choice, becomes her
own creation with an autonomous self. But while such a developmental freedom may strengthen the self, it is
accompanied by a growing sense of isolation and aloneness, and even anguish. In this view, the conflict between
Mrs. Mallard’s life and death becomes so irreconcilable that she finally dies of heart disease when she is told that she
will see her husband come back home alive instead of being dead in the railroad disaster.
Here Mrs. Mallard’s passing away deconstructs the conflict between her life and death. It’s difficult for us to agree
with the doctors’ view that it is joy that kills her. On the contrary, we are liable to consider that her death is caused
by the great shock and anguish when she learns that her husband is still alive.
Like people and schools of criticism, ideas and theories travel - from person to person, from situation to situation, from
one period to another. Cultural and intellectual life are usually nourished and often sustained by this circulation of ideas,
and whether it takes the form of acknowledged or unconscious influence, creative borrowing, or
wholesale appropriation, the movement of ideas and theories from one place to another is both a fact of life
and a usefully enabling condition of intellectual activity.
Thus when we review what Chopin has done in The Story of an Hour, we cannot help wondering that there are the
others who have the similar ideas to her and what ideas and theories have influenced her. Kate Chopin must be
familiar with the transcendentalist precursor Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), who emphasizes the importance of
individual freedom and “that Unity". In her The Awakening, she lets the heroine, Edna learn something from
Emerson’s works:
Then Edna sat in the library after dinner and read Emerson until she grew sleepy. She realized that she had
neglected her reading studies, and determined to start anew upon a course of improving studies, now that her time was
completely her own to do with as she liked”.
In his famous speech, “Liberty or Death” (1775), Patrick Henry (1736-1799) says, “I know not what course others may
take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” Similarly, Zhuang Zi (B.C369~B.C.286?), an important
representative of the Taoist school of thought in Chinese history, is very famous for his thought on freedom. He uses the
story form to evoke the reader a philosophical response. Comparisons and parallels of Chopin’s ideas on spiritual and
physical freedom with Zhuang Zi’s philosophy can reveal the universality of ideals of truth and morality encompassed
by philosophical thought.
All his life Zhuang Zi lived in straitened circumstances and sometimes had to earn his rice by making straw sandals or
even to borrow from others. But he was not at all interested in an official position or offering his service to any ruler.
There was a king that went by with the name of Wei Wang in the State of Chu. When he was told that Zhuang Zi was
very learned and talented, he sent an emissary to the latter, inviting him to become his prime minister with a huge salary.
Zhuang Zi was adamant in declining the offer, and would rather be an orphaned piglet, saying, “I would rather play in a
muddy ditch and be happy than be fettered by the state”. That means he would prefer never to have anything to do
with the official world and hope for spiritual contentment only. Thus his spirit is free and he lives in perfect unity with
himself and with nature, liberated from all moral, social, or political concerns, all metaphysical uneasiness, all
concern for effectiveness, all internal or external conflict, and all wants and desires even though his body leads a dirty
and miserable life.
In the same way, at the end of “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard seems to realize it’s impossible for her to keep
both her spirit and body free in the traditional society. After the sudden death, Mrs. Mallard gains the eternal spiritual
freedom, melting into the universe. To some extent, she is not tragic and has taken fate in her own hands, making the
supreme mastery over her destiny. From this point of view, maybe the doctors’ diagnosis is right that Mrs. Mallard did
die of joy, but the delight is not from the good news that her husband is still alive, but from the death in which she
acquires an immortal freedom. All the conventional conflicts are deconstructed, and are not existent for her any longer.
In short, the fact that Mrs. Mallard’s life suddenly leaves her body is a good illustration of Heideggar’s
Being-towards-death.
Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), whom some judge “to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, twentieth-century
philosopher”, wants to develop a different way of understanding reality based on the question of being. He attempts to
place this understanding of being in the arena of human being or Dasein. Dasein is in all cases you and me, your/my
individual being. As Heidegger states Dasein is always already comporting itself towards being as if it knows what being
is. Every living being has to be concerned about its being, and being is not a given (only death is). The individual’s
comportment toward being is very important in continuing being (avoiding death). In examining how we deal with
others, Heidegger recognizes an inauthentic mode of being with others in our normal human condition. This is how
we usually exist with others when we reflect on how we interact with others. The kind of being we find ourselves
living is living the life of someone else, the “they”. According to Heidegger, this is an inauthentic life, doing something
that is not my own, but somebody else’s.
Heidegger acknowledges that the “they” relieves my self of the burden of freedom, of being a self, freedom of choosing
a self. For Heidegger, the self is something that must be resolutely chosen by Dasein. The usual state of being for
Dasein is the “falling” of Dasein, which is a falling away from authentic being; tranquilized and alienated. In this
“falling”, Dasein is no longer aware of the need to be a self and is thereby removed or alienated from being a self. In
response to this “falling”, Dasein often experiences a feeling of anxiety. Anxiety is the mood/mode of attunement in
which our inauthentic being is disclosed to us. For Heidegger, anxiety individualizes you. It is the way in which you are
not dispersed in the “they”.
An essential characteristic of Dasein is being of possibilities. Death is our utmost possibility. It is one of the possibilities
of being which only I can be; no one else can do it for me. Death draws me to authenticity, away from “they”, forces me
to die my own death; and forces me to be authentic. When I am aware of my own death, I am closer to authenticity.
Death is the reality, which makes it possible to escape inauthenticity. If I run forward to my own death, it makes me
realize how individualized that I am and I am able to regain my own Being. It is easier to live, as everyone else does,
less authentic and less anxious. But authentic living towards death is becoming responsible for my own choices.
For as much as this, in “The Story of an Hour”, Mrs. Mallard wants to lead an authentic life, doing something that is her
own, not somebody else’s. She desires to make resolute choices outside the boundaries of the “they”, outside of social
conditioning and is fully aware of the possibility of what waits for her in the near future. The element of modern
existentialism is fused with a Greek tragic sense of the cosmically inevitable as the author, at the very end, gives her
heroine a meaning and a dimension which surpass the personal and contemporary boundary.
This is a very interesting and enlightening topic which I will discuss further. Heidegger’s views force us into facing our
life and death directly: we do not have a position outside of the world from which we can understand the world, “we
cannot escape this aspect of our existence. Moreover, we are absorbed in this world”. In fact, as long as we are alive,
we are faced with a variety of possibilities. Even though we are aware that we are mortal, or at least become aware
of this the older we become, we continue to think of the future. As Heideggar has pointed out, we are always ahead
of ourselves. He says that in our everyday lives, absorbed as we are in the “they”, we flee from death, and we can
live our lives with a “freedom towards death”.
In literature, there are many protagonists who are granted deaths. Those characters have actualized their
idealized images and then die before they are subject to failure and despair. There are many examples such as
Flaubert’s Emma Bovary (1857), Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina (1877), and even Lin Dai-yu in a most famous Chinese
writer, Cao Xueqin’s The Story of the Stone (1763) in Qing Dynasty. Although those authors present their
heroines as women struggling toward freedom and self-realization, they usually die in a horrible or agonizing way:
Bovary is poisoned by arsenic, Anna is killed by a train, and Dai-yu, maybe we can say, dies of melancholia
resulting from the feudal families’ and social pressure. All the heroines live far from the nature, and become the
victims of society. For example, throughout the novel, Flaubert maintains ironic distance from his protagonist: the
reader more often observes than participates in Emma Bovary’s awakening. But in “The Story of an Hour”, Kate
Chopin combines elements from Madame Bovary with a significant shift in focus. The ironic distance of
Madame Bovary is replaced by a high degree of narrative sympathy. Written by a woman and focusing strictly
upon changes of consciousness in its protagonist, “The Story of an Hour” represents a distilled example of the novel of
feminist awakening and self-assertion, and the most essential part is the ending of the novel: Mrs. Mallard seems to die
in tragedy, but it can be regarded as a triumph. Chopin grants her a death in which her cravings for freedom are finally
fulfilled through her sudden joyful death.
All through her life, Kate Chopin must have been constantly shifting to adjust to the loss of he family members such
as her father (in 1855), great-grandmother, brother, grandmother, her husband (in 1883), and her mother, and to
her changing place in her personal community. Turning to escapist literature, she tried to forget the world and her
grief. In time, she bounced back into life after she gained strength. No wonder, many of her protagonists including
Mrs. Mallard seem to be searching for self-understanding in spite of the final death.
In a word, Chopin’s philosophical ideas of life and death are clearly reflected in “The Story of Hour”, which
have transcended the irreconcilable conflict between life and death. They echo the philosophical thought of Zhuangzi,
ancient Chinese thinker and Martin Heideggar on them and certainly there is still large space for us to probe. For
example, her views also remind us of echofeminism and Chinese Unity of Heaven and Humanity as of ancient times,
which I would discuss in another series of papers.
The Story of an Hour
Plot Overview
Louise Mallard has heart trouble, so she must be informed carefully about her
husband’s death. Her sister, Josephine, tells her the news. Louise’s husband’s friend,
Richards, learned about a railroad disaster when he was in the newspaper office and
saw Louise’s husband, Brently, on the list of those killed. Louise begins sobbing when
Josephine tells her of Brently’s death and goes upstairs to be alone in her room.

Louise sits down and looks out an open window. She sees trees, smells approaching
rain, and hears a peddler yelling out what he’s selling. She hears someone singing as
well as the sounds of sparrows, and there are fluffy white clouds in the sky. She is
young, with lines around her eyes. Still crying, she gazes into the distance. She feels
apprehensive and tries to suppress the building emotions within her, but can’t. She
begins repeating the word “Free” to herself over and over again. Her heart beats
quickly, and she feels very warm.

Louise knows she’ll cry again when she sees Brently’s corpse. His hands were tender,
and he always looked at her lovingly. But then she imagines the years ahead, which
belong only to her now, and spreads her arms out joyfully with anticipation. She will
be free, on her own without anyone to oppress her. She thinks that all women and men
oppress one another even if they do it out of kindness. Louise knows that she often felt
love for Brently but tells herself that none of that matters anymore. She feels ecstatic
with her newfound sense of independence.

Josephine comes to her door, begging Louise to come out, warning her that she’ll get
sick if she doesn’t. Louise tells her to go away. She fantasizes about all the days and
years ahead and hopes that she lives a long life. Then she opens the door, and she and
Josephine start walking down the stairs, where Richards is waiting.

The front door unexpectedly opens, and Brently comes in. He hadn’t been in the train
accident or even aware that one had happened. Josephine screams, and Richards tries
unsuccessfully to block Louise from seeing him. Doctors arrive and pronounce that
Louise died of a heart attack brought on by happiness.

Structure and Style
In “The Story of an Hour,” Chopin employs specific structural and stylistic techniques
to heighten the drama of the hour. The structure Chopin has chosen for “The Story of
an Hour” fits the subject matter perfectly. The story is short, made up of a series of
short paragraphs, many of which consist of just two or three sentences. Likewise, the
story covers only one hour in Louise Mallard’s life—from the moment she learns of her
husband’s death to the moment he unexpectedly returns alive. The short, dense
structure mirrors the intense hour Louise spends contemplating her new
independence. Just as Louise is completely immersed in her wild thoughts of the
moment, we are immersed along with her in this brief period of time. This story can be
read quickly, but the impact it makes is powerful. Chopin surprises us first with
Louise’s elated reaction when she first murmurs “free” to herself. She shocks us again
at the conclusion when she dies upon Brently’s return. The “heart disease” mentioned
at the end of the story echoes the “heart trouble” discussed at the beginning,
intensifying the twist ending and bringing the story to a satisfying close.

Because such a short story leaves no room for background information, flashbacks, or
excessive speculation, Chopin succeeds in making every sentence important by
employing an almost poetic writing style. She uses repetition to highlight important
points, such as when she repeats the word open throughout the story to emphasize the
freedom of Louise’s new life. She has Louise repeat the word free over and over again
as well, which is one of the few words Louise actually speaks aloud in the story and
indicates how much she cherishes her newfound freedom. Besides repeating words,
Chopin also repeats phrases and sentence structures to highlight important points. For
example, Chopin writes, “She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was
only yesterday that she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.” The
identical phrasing of the second half of each sentence reveals how drastically Louise’s
life has changed—she once shuddered at the thought of a long life, but now she prays
for it. Finally, Chopin makes the prose of the story beautiful by using alliteration and
internal rhymes. For example, Josephine “revealed in half concealing” when she tells
Louise the news, and Brently reappears “composedly carrying” his belongings. All of
Chopin’s stylistic and structural techniques combine to make this very short story
powerful.

Main ideas Themes
The Forbidden Joy of Independence
In “The Story of an Hour,” independence is a forbidden pleasure that can be imagined
only privately. When Louise hears from Josephine and Richards of Brently’s death, she
reacts with obvious grief, and although her reaction is perhaps more violent than other
women’s, it is an appropriate one. Alone, however, Louise begins to realize that she is
now an independent woman, a realization that enlivens and excites her. Even though
these are her private thoughts, she at first tries to squelch the joy she feels, to “beat it
back with her will.” Such resistance reveals how forbidden this pleasure really is.
When she finally does acknowledge the joy, she feels possessed by it and must
abandon herself to it as the word free escapes her lips. Louise’s life offers no refuge for
this kind of joy, and the rest of society will never accept it or understand it. Extreme
circumstances have given Louise a taste of this forbidden fruit, and her thoughts are, in
turn, extreme. She sees her life as being absolutely hers and her new independence as
the core of her being. Overwhelmed, Louise even turns to prayer, hoping for a long life
in which to enjoy this feeling. When Brently returns, he unwittingly yanks Louise’s
independence away from her, putting it once again out of her reach. The forbidden joy
disappears as quickly as it came, but the taste of it is enough to kill her.

The Inherent Oppressiveness of Marriage
Chopin suggests that all marriages, even the kindest ones, are inherently oppressive.
Louise, who readily admits that her husband was kind and loving, nonetheless feels joy
when she believes that he has died. Her reaction doesn’t suggest any malice, and
Louise knows that she’ll cry at Brently’s funeral. However, despite the love between
husband and wife, Louise views Brently’s death as a release from oppression. She
never names a specific way in which Brently oppressed her, hinting instead that
marriage in general stifles both women and men. She even seems to suggest that she
oppressed Brently just as much as he oppressed her. Louise’s epiphany in which these
thoughts parade through her mind reveals the inherent oppressiveness of all
marriages, which by their nature rob people of their independence.

Motifs
Weeping
Louise’s weeping about Brently’s death highlight the dichotomy between sorrow and
happiness. Louise cries or thinks about crying for about three-quarters of “The Story of
an Hour,” stopping only when she thinks of her new freedom. Crying is part of her life
with Brently, but it will presumably be absent from her life as an independent woman.
At the beginning of the story, Louise sobs dramatically when she learns that Brently is
dead, enduring a “storm of grief.” She continues weeping when she is alone in her
room, although the crying now is unconscious, more a physical reflex than anything
spurred by emotion. She imagines herself crying over Brently’s dead body. Once the
funeral is over in her fantasies, however, there is no further mention of crying because
she’s consumed with happiness.

Symbols
Heart Trouble
The heart trouble that afflicts Louise is both a physical and symbolic malady that
represents her ambivalence toward her marriage and unhappiness with her lack of
freedom. The fact that Louise has heart trouble is the first thing we learn about her,
and this heart trouble is what seems to make the announcement of Brently’s death so
threatening. A person with a weak heart, after all, would not deal well with such news.
When Louise reflects on her new independence, her heart races, pumping blood
through her veins. When she dies at the end of the story, the diagnosis of “heart
disease” seems appropriate because the shock of seeing Brently was surely enough to
kill her. But the doctors’ conclusion that she’d died of overwhelming joy is ironic
because it had been the loss of joy that had actually killed her. Indeed, Louise seems to
have died of a broken heart, caused by the sudden loss of her much-loved
independence.

The Open Window
The open window from which Louise gazes for much of the story represents the
freedom and opportunities that await her after her husband has died. From the
window, Louise sees blue sky, fluffy clouds, and treetops. She hears people and birds
singing and smells a coming rainstorm. Everything that she experiences through her
senses suggests joy and spring—new life. And when she ponders the sky, she feels the
first hints of elation. Once she fully indulges in this excitement, she feels that the open
window is providing her with life itself. The open window provides a clear, bright view
into the distance and Louise’s own bright future, which is now unobstructed by the
demands of another person. It’s therefore no coincidence that when Louise turns from
the window and the view, she quickly loses her freedom as well.



The Storm Summary

"The Storm" features 5 characters: Bobinôt, Bibi, Calixta, Alcée, and Clarissa. The short
story is set in the late 19th-century at Friedheimer's store in Louisiana and at the
nearby house of Calixta and Bobinôt.

The story starts with Bobinôt and Bibi at the store when dark clouds start to appear.
Soon enough, a thunderous storm erupts and rain hails down. The storm is so heavy
that they decide to stay at the s tore until the weather calms down. They worry about
Calixta, Bobinôt's wife and Bibi's mother, who is home alone and probably afraid of the
storm and nervous about their whereabouts.

Meanwhile, Calixta is at home and indeed is worried about her family. She goes outside
to bring in drying laundry before the storm soaks it all over again. Alcée rides by on his
horse. He helps Calixta gather laundry and asks if he can wait at her place for the storm
to pass over.

It is revealed that Calixta and Alcée are former lovers, and while trying to calm down
Calixta, who is anxious about her husband and son in the storm, they eventually
succumb to lust and make love as the storm continues to rage on.

The storm ends, and Alcée is now riding away from Calixta's home. Both are happy and
smiling. Later, Bobinôt and Bibi come home drenched in mud. Calixta is ecstatic that
they are safe and the family enjoys a large supper together.

Alcée writes a letter to his wife, Clarisse, and kids who are in Biloxi. Clarisse is touched
by the loving letter from her husband, though she does enjoy a feeling of liberation
that comes from being so far from Alcée and her marriage life. In the end, everyone
seems content and cheerful.

Meaning of the Title
The storm parallels Calixta and Alcée passion and affair in its rising intensity, climax,
and conclusion. Like a thunderstorm, Chopin suggests that their affair is intense, but
also potentially destructive and passing. If Bobinôt came home while Calixta and Alcée
were still together, that scene would have damaged their marriage and Alcée and
Clarissa's marriage. Thus, Alcée leaves right after the storms ends, acknowledging that
this was a one-time, heat of the moment incident.

Cultural Significance
Given how sexually explicit this short story is, it is no wonder why Kate Chopin did not
publish it during her lifetime. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, any written work that
was sexual was not considered respectable by societal standards.

A release from such restrictive criteria, Kate Chopin's "The Storm" goes to show that
just because it was not written about does not mean sexual desire and tension did not
occur in everyday people's lives during that time period.

A small boy, Bibi, and his father, Bobinôt, wait out a major Louisiana storm at a local
store. They're worried about the third member of their family, Calixta, but can't do
anything.

At home, Calixta realizes there's a storm brewing. An old boyfriend, Alcée, happens to
be passing by and gets stuck at her house when the storm breaks. Calixta gets more
and more worried about her family, but before she knows it she and Alcée are making
out…then having sex. This totally distracts them from the storm.

When the storm passes, Alcée leaves. Bibi and Bobinôt come home and never find out
he was there. Calixta seems really glad to see them.

After the storm, Alcée writes a letter to his wife, Clarisse, saying it's OK with him if she
wants to stay longer on her trip. She is kind of relieved, because she could use a break
from her husband and the romantic side of their relationship.

So, when the storm's over, everything has worked out pretty well for everybody.

Section 1
• A small child, Bibi, and his father Bobinôt are at the local shop, Friedheimer's,
running some errands. They realize that a major storm is on its way. Since they're
too far from home to get back in time, they decide to stay at the shop.
• Bibi isn't scared, but he worries that his mother will be.
• Bobinôt buys some shrimp.

Section 2
• Bibi's mother Calixta is back at their house. She doesn't seem as worried about her
family as they are about her. She sews.
• Only when it gets warm and night starts to fall does she notice that bad weather is
coming. She goes around the house closing doors and windows.
• She goes outside to grab the laundry and sees her old flame, a man named Alcée.
It's been a long time since they saw each other.
• It starts raining, so Calixta invites Alcée into the house to wait out the storm.
• The weather quickly worsens.
• Calixta still seems lovely to Alcée.
• The weather gets worse, and the two are in a room where they can see Calixta's
bed.
• Calixta gets worried about her family, and Alcée reassures her.
• The two go look out the window at the raging storm.
• She freaks out and they embrace.
• Alcée reassures her again. They're both reminded of a previous encounter they had
in a town called Assumption, where they got it on a little.
• They start making out again, and this time they don't stop. The two forget about the
bad weather and have super intense sex.
• When they're done, the storm seems to be going away, and they'd like to take a nap,
but they know they shouldn't.

Section 3
• The storm is over. Calixta watches Alcée leave.
• Soon after, Bibi and Bobinôt come home. On the way, they're worried that Calixta
will be mad at them because they weren't home, and because they're all disheveled
from the storm.
• At home, though, Calixta's not mad. She's made them their dinner and just seems
really glad to see them.
• Bobinôt gives her the shrimp and they embrace. It seems like a perfect picture of a
happy family.

Section 4
• At his lodging, Alcée writes to his wife, Clarisse. She's on vacation, and he implies
that, while it's a sacrifice for him, she shouldn't hurry back too soon if she doesn't
want to.

Section 5
• Clarisse receives the letter and is glad she doesn't have to go back home yet. She's
happy to take a break from her husband.
• The story ends with a reminder that the big storm is over and everyone is all the
better for it

The Storm Themes
Sex
"The Storm" is risqué by any generation's standards, but particularly for the time it
was written, at the end of the 19th century. With one exception, the characters are all
sexualized, mature, knowing adults. By discovering amazing sex outside their
marriages, Calixta and Alcée return to those marriages renewed. Surprisingly, the
author seems to condone the adultery. The characters aren't punished, and in the end
"everyone was happy." Fresh sexuality and desire stomps through their lives just like
the storm rages through a single day. Even though it doesn't leave any tangible
evidence behind, its effects will linger.

Questions About Sex
• In what ways does this story seem explicit? Are there elements in it besides its
sexuality that seem shocking?
• What kind of lover is Alcée?
• What different attitudes do the characters seem to have towards sex, as opposed to
love? Do they treat sex and love the same or differently?
• Do you think Calixta feels guilty about having sex with Alcée? Why or why not?
• Why do you think Calixta only becomes scared of the storm after Alcée's arrival at
her home?
• Do you think Alcée has any ulterior motives when he writes to his wife at the end of
the story? If so, what are they?

Chew on This
For Chopin, love and sexual desire are not the same thing.
In "The Storm," a good sexual relationship is essential to a happy marriage.
Women and Femininity
"The Storm" showcases two similar yet different wives and mothers. Both are involved
with the same man, both seem invested in caring for their families, and both dream of
the time, not so long ago, when they were single and free. Both seek fulfillment away
from their husbands: one finds pleasure in sexuality, while the other finds relief in its
absence. The portraits of these two women remind us of each woman's individuality
while simultaneously underscoring the traditional, domestic position of late 19th
century femininity. In other words, even though a lot of women were stuck in the same
domestic rut during this time, that didn't mean they were all the same, like Stepford
wives.

Questions About Women and Femininity
• What do you make of the fact that Calixta seems to reclaim her "maidenhood" by
being with Alcée, while Clarisse seems to reclaim it by being free of him?
• Based on the descriptions of Calixta's and Clarisse's lives, what do you think it
would have been like to be a wife and mother during the time period of "The
Storm"?
• What role does sexuality play in defining Calixta and Clarisse as women?
• What connection does this story seem to be making between being a mother, a
lover, and a wife?

Chew on This
Both women feel stifled by their marriages and long to once again be single and free.
Even though she is both a wife and mother, Calixta feels the most feminine when
conducting her brief affair with Alcée.

Marriage
We're often taught that cheating is wrong – on a test, in a marriage, whatever. We
think of it as being dishonest, or as a kind of sin. "The Storm" is not so black and white,
though. Yes, Calixta and Alcée cheat on their spouses by having an affair and act as if
nothing happened, but afterwards they seem to be kinder and sweeter to their
spouses. Their hypocrisy seems to help strengthen their marriages rather than
destroying them.

Questions About Marriage
• Does Calixta and Alcée's affair improve or damage their marriages? Or does it have
no impact at all?
• This story has two characters who commit adultery and two characters who are
cheated on. Of all four, who (if any) do you feel the most pity for, and why?
• What kind of relationship do you think Bobinôt and Calixta have? What about Alcée
and Clarisse? Do these couples have happy marriages?

Chew on This
Because neither Calixta nor Alcée reveal their affair to their respective spouses, no
damage is done to either of their marriages. It's as if the affair had never happened.
Even though Calixta and Alcée cheat, the act of cheating makes them kinder to each of
their spouses. In this way, everyone benefits from what might otherwise be considered
a sin.
While everyone seems "happy" at the end of "The Storm," the affair and its aftermath
reveals the deep-rooted problems in the marriages of both couples.

Man and the Natural World
In "The Storm," the people and the world around them are experiencing the same
brief, exciting, and dangerous event: the storm. Calixta and Alcée experience it
differently than the others; for them, the storm heightens the danger and excitement of
their adultery. When the storm is over, the natural world recovers. Similarly, when the
lovers are finished, they part ways and return to their spouses.

Questions About Man and the Natural World
• Many critics have suggested that the storm is equivalent to the tempestuous sexual
encounter between Calixta and Alcée (here's an example). What do you think the
storm represents for characters like Bibi and Bobinôt?
• In what ways does the storm mimic the emotions and actions of the characters? In
what ways does it seem to be the opposite of them?
• How is Clarisse affected by the storm?

Chew on This
The storm mirrors Alcée and Calixta's affair: both are brief, intense, and dangerous in
their own ways, but neither involves any permanent damage.

“Désirée’s Baby”
“Désirée’s Baby” explores themes of love, race, and destructive prejudice within the
antebellum French Creole culture in Louisiana. The short story was originally
published in 1893, under the title of “The Father of Désirée’s Baby,” in Vogue
magazine.

Désirée Valmondé is the adopted daughter of Monsieur and Madame Valmondé; as a
small baby, she was found abandoned by Monsieur Valmondé outside the gates of his
estate. Beautiful and beloved by her adoptive parents, she is courted by the son of
another wealthy, French Creole neighborhood family, Armand. She and Armand marry
and have a baby.

When the baby is born, Armand is at first delighted. However, the baby’s skin color
soon shows signs of the baby being a “quadroon” or “octoroon”—either 1/4 or 1/8
African. Armand assumes that because of Désirée’s unknown parentage that she is part
black.
Proud, arrogant, and cruel, as his treatment of his slaves has previously shown,
Armand confronts Désirée. She denies being of African descent, and she writes to her
mother, begging her for help. Madame Valmondé responds that she and the baby
should return home to the Valmondé estate. However, her letter does not reach
Désirée in time. Scornful and disbelieving of Désirée’s claims, Armand insists that
Désirée and the baby leave at once. Désirée walks off with the baby in her arms into
the bayou; they are never seen again.

Armand burns all of Désirée’s belongings on the front lawn, including the baby’s
cradle. He also burns all of the love letters Désirée sent him during their courtship;
however, one letter in the bundle is a letter from Armand’s mother to his father, which
Armand reads. In this letter, Armand’s mother reveals that Armand is part black,
through her lineage. Désirée’s ancestry is never disclosed.

Though Chopin sets the story in pre-Civil War Louisiana, her story purposefully
touches on the troubling history and continuation of racism in the United States. By
exposing Armand’s racism and revulsion for his wife and child, whom he previously
adored, Chopin reveals how deeply-embedded prejudice and racism are among the
privileged, “white” French Creoles. However, she also calls into question the racism
inherent in the broader, contemporary culture. Modern literary critics find much to
admire in Chopin’s themes and writing techniques, which include use of Creole dialect
and culture that add realism to her tale. Désirée’s pitiful, desperate plight, once her
husband throws her out, also highlights another aspect of Chopin’s writing: women’s
roles and the need for women’s rights and equality.

Desiree's Baby Summary
The story opens with Madame Valmonde visiting Desiree and her baby. On her way to
L’Abri, she reminisces about Desiree’s childhood. Desiree was a foundling discovered
by Monsieur Valmonde. He found her "lying in the shadow of the big stone pillar," as he
was galloping through the gateway to Valmonde. The general opinion was that she was
left behind by a "party of Texans," but Madame Valmonde believed Desiree was sent to
her by God as she was not able to have her own children.

Eighteen years later, Armand Aubigny all of a sudden falls in love with Desiree when
he sees her standing against the stone pillar, even though they knew each other since
they were small children, ever since Armand and his father came from Paris, after his
mother died. Monsieur Valmonde proposes that before their relationship becomes
more serious, Desiree’s origin should be examined. However, Armand is so in love that
he does not care about Desiree’s ancestors and decides it does not matter that she does
not have a family name of her own, if he can give her a perfectly good one, and so they
get married.

Madame Valmonde has a surprise awaiting her. She has not seen the baby for a month
and when she arrives to L’Abri she is shocked to see the baby's appearance. Desiree
remarks about how much he has grown. However, it is apparent that she does not see
anything wrong with her son. She is very happy. Ever since the baby was born, her
husband Armand, who was very strict and harsh, has softened a great deal.

When the baby is three months old, the situation in the house changes. Desiree senses
there is something wrong. On top of that, Armand becomes cold and avoids both
Desiree and the baby. One afternoon Desiree is sitting in her room and starts
observing her child and a little quadroon boy who was fanning it. The similarity
between them frightens her and she sends the boy away.

When Armand arrives back home, Desiree asks him about the baby. He responds that
indeed the baby is not white, which means that she is not white either. Desiree points
out all her physical features that strongly suggest that she is white, but her angry
husband tells her she is as white as their mixed-race slaves.

Desperate, Desiree writes to her mother, Madame Valmonde, asking for help. Madame
Valmonde tells her to come back home because she still loves her. Afterwards, Desiree
asks her husband about his opinion and he sends her away. As a result of that, Desiree
takes her baby and leaves the house. However, she does not take the road leading to
the Valmonde, but instead she disappears in the bayou.

Several weeks after, Armand sets up a bonfire to get rid of Desiree’s belongings.
Among the stuff he decides to throw away, Armand finds several letters. Most of them
are "little scribblings" Desiree sent him in the days of their engagement, but he also
finds one that is addressed from his mother to his father. In the letter, his mother
thanks God for her husband’s love, but she also reveals that she is grateful that her son
will never know that his mother "belongs to the race that is cursed by slavery."

Desiree's Baby Themes
Racism
The main conflict centers around the issue Armand has about Desiree's supposed
mixed racial background. His hatred for the black race runs so strong that without
thinking too hard about the possibility that the child's somewhat darker complexion
could have been because of him, he effectively abandons Desiree. The antebellum
Louisiana setting shows how the racial hierarchy of the time has a psychological
impact not only on the black slaves as a result of subjugation, abuse by their owners,
and forced labor - completely stripping them of their humanity - but also how slavery
affects the psychology of the white slave owner.

The incredible fear that Armand harbors about how Desiree is supposedly mixed leads
him to think that marrying her, being with her, giving her the attention that he did, and
having a child with her has completely tarnished the name of his family and his home.
He refuses to believe Desiree, despite her desperate attempts that almost conclusively
show that she is indeed of pure white heritage (at least insofar as her skin is even
whiter than Armand's). He falls into a state of complete indifference - his hatred is so
pure, so raw, and so great that nothing, until he reads his mother's letter, could
convince him that he has black blood, and that he was the reason why his son has a
darker skin complexion. Armand is blinded by his emotions - first of love for Desiree
and then of hatred of the black race - and both emotions are so intense that it is not
until the end that he realizes how wrong he is about Desiree and about his own
heritage.



Kinship
What we see in this story are two extremes of kinship: Monsieur and Madame
Valmondé very willingly take in Desiree as a baby who they knew nothing about. There
were theories among the townspeople that she was left by a party of traveling Texans,
but that did not seem to make a difference for the Valmondés. They took in Desiree as
she was, and it was only when Armand took a fancy to her as a grownup that Monsieur
Valmondé cautioned Armand to at least consider the background of Desiree. When
Desiree realized what Armand thought about their child and about her racial
background, she writes a heartfelt and urgent letter to Madame Valmondé. The
Madame sends back a brief reply: "My own Desiree: Come home to Valmondé; back to
your mother who loves you. Come with your child." It is more than evident that
regardless of all that has happened - and from the tone of Valmondé's letter it seems
that she knew something like this was going to happen - Valmondé very
enthusiastically tells Desiree to come home. Moreover, she tells her to bring the baby
as well.

This uncompromising and unconditional operates quite apart from the kind of kinship
that Armand exhibits, which is full of haste, of rash, uninformed decision-making, and
of uncontrolled (and unchecked) emotional expression. Armand forgoes and breaks off
his ties with Desiree almost as quickly as he initially built them, and does so in a
similarly impulsive manner. His decisions are made in the spur of the moment. It is
this ill-natured temperament and mentality that creates problems for Desiree and for
Armand, and eventually leads to both of their downfalls (assuming that Armand's
realization of his true racial heritage is something that he is unable to accept or live
with).

Denial
At first Desiree is unable to comprehend the reason why Armand has become so
hostile to her. She refuses to believe that she is anything but white - nothing about her
appearance suggests otherwise. In fact, Armand's darker skin might indicate that he is
the one of mixed racial heritage. At the same time, what Chopin leaves the reader with
is this kind of cliff-hanger: how exactly does Armand process and understand that fact
his mother was black? It would seem that, at least if past behavior is indicative of
anything in the future, Armand would not take this information about race lightly. It is
unclear what he would do: would he deny his racial identification? Would he hate
himself because he is half black? There is in fact, to some degree, a difficulty in
accepting the realities of race. All his life, he was the master, the dominant being. But
after learning about his mother, would he deny himself what he denied others? It may
be the case that if Armand truly believed in the racialized hierarchy of his day, in the
inferiority of black people, and in the supremacy and superiority of white people, he
(ironically) would sell himself into slavery or some kind of bondage. On the other
hand, the psychological impact of this newfound information may lead him - as he is
quite a religious individual - to repent and atone for his sins and to possibly go looking
for Desiree and their child. However, this is completely left to the reader's imagination.
What is clear is that Armand slowly comes to terms with his child's skin tone, which he
sees as God's (apparent) unjust punishment. He denies that he did anything wrong at
all to deserve this. At the end, he comes to realize that he was the sinner all along.
Desiree's Baby Symbols, Allegory and Motifs
Love
Love - or more accurately blind love - animated the actions (and mistakes in
particular) of both Armand and Desiree. It is difficult to say who suffered more:
Desiree, who wanted Armand so much, would have rather died (and presumably did
after walking into the wilderness) than return to her parents. On the other hand,
Armand's love led him to hastily marry Desiree without confirming that she was not
part black - or at least consider that possibility. Had he definitely known she was of
pure white blood, he might have considered his own past, and the fact he himself was
of mixed blood. Armand would not have lost his name, his wife, and child the way he
did.

Desiree's Baby Metaphors and Similes

Blood (Simile)
"The blood turned like ice in her veins..."
Desiree slowly comes to realize what exactly has been the cause of the change in
Armand's behavior: the fact that their child is of a mixed racial heritage.

Roof (Simile)
"The roof came down steep and black like a cowl."
This describes the all-encompassing, dominating nature of Armand's home, much like
his own behavior and approach to life.

Bed (Simile)
"The baby, half-naked, lay asleep upon her own great mahogany bed, that was
like a sumptuous throne, with its satin-linked half-canopy."
By comparing the bed to a throne, Chopin also compares the baby to royalty. This acts
like a foreshadowing of sorts: soon the royalty with which the baby is being treated
might end.

Turned Away (Simile)
"She turned away like one stunned by a blow."
Desiree is still processing the audacity and ease with which Armand is disposing of
her, despite her commitment to and love for him. She is unable to convince Armand,
through her pleas, that she is not of mixed heritage. It is possible that if Armand
accepts this, than he would have to admit that it is he who is of mixed heritage,
something that would contradict his entire being.

Desiree's Baby Essay Questions
1. Why do you think Chopin ended the story with the letter from Armand's mother?
2. Why is Desiree's fate is left unknown?
3. How is it that Armand pays for having hastily married Desiree?
4. What are instances that foreshadow the possible outcomes of Desiree's future?
5. How does Armand conceive of Desiree?