The Exposed Woman in Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” Chloe Kohlman College

The narration in Kate Chopin’s “The Storm” is delivered in third person omniscient and is a key element in the story. The role of the narrator is more than simply communicating the story to the readers; in this case, the narrator provides an unadulterated depiction of the events. This is extremely important when considering the historical context of the story in conjunction with the plot. While the characters Calixta and Clarisse are both notably devout wives and mothers, they also display a yearning for more. Calixta lusts after Alcée, a married man, demonstrating a completely normal sexual desire during a time when this is simply abnormal and wrong. Meanwhile, Clarisse is the complete opposite; she longs to be separated and independent from her husband, an ambitious and ludicrous action. In Kate Chopin’s “The Storm,” the two women represent sexual desire as well as independence, traits that are commonly frowned upon within the culture of the 1890s; however, through the narrator, these actions are completely normalized.

It is important to note the time in which Chopin writes this story. Although it is composed in 1898, it is “not published until 1969 as part of Per Seyersted’s edition of The Complete Works of Kate Chopin”...