Analyzing Kate Chopin’s Short Stories

Analyzing Kate Chopin’s Short Stories
The Storm
This is a story that occurs in two different settings. The first scene where Bobinot and Bibi take shelter from the storm is at the store owned by a man named Freidheimer. The second and subsequent scenes take place at the house of Bobinot and his wife, Calixta. Both scenes are however in the same neighborhood whose name is only mentioned by Alcee LaBalliere. In his letter to his wife, Alcee LaBalliere comments that she and the babies had no reason to come back in a hurry unless they liked Biloxi. We learn from this statement that the story unfolds in Biloxi.
In the first part of the story, Bobinot and Bibi decided to remain at the store until the storm was over. Their decision was significant to the whole story. Calixta’s anxiety during the storm arose from their absence. She was accordingly afraid that they had been rained on and even the awkward moment between her and Alcee LaBalliere would have presumably never taken place had her husband and son been with them in the house.
While still taking shelter at the store, Bibinot left his son for a while and went to the counter where he purchased his wife’s favorite can of shrimps. This act goes a long way in implying that he loved Calixta although his speech to Bibi on their way home infers that he hardly appreciated her nature. He seemed to think the worst of her and thus foretold that Calixta would reprove the young boy for coming home dirty irrespective of her knowledge of the storm and rain they faced.
In this story, Chopin paints an image of sex, love, and marriage that is neither attractive nor appealing. This implication is made by the evident lack of understanding between Bobinot and his wife and that between LaBalliere and his. The two couples distinctly demonstrates a negative image of marriage where sex is nothing but a conjugal right meant to be fulfilled regardless of individual feelings of the couple and lack of mutual agreement amongst them. For example, LaBalliere’s wife mentioned as being enticed by her husband’s letter. From Chopin’s perspective, her marriage denied her liberty. Any conjugal life with him was something she would not mind avoiding for some time.
The title of the story is used symbolically to imply the harsh relationship that existed between the two couples, denying them happiness. The setting and the plot are effectively used to bring out this implied storm and its effects on the characters. Towards the end, the narrator can communicate so much with the two families; their past ties and present predicament although leaving some level of suspense as concerning what the future held for them
“The Story of an Hour”
The story starts at the point where Mrs. Mallard. The main character was being informed of her husband’s death. In the first sentence, Chopin brings to the attention of the reader the old woman’s heart condition, which she proposes warranted caution in giving her the bad news lest she would have died of excessive sadness. However, this is an ironic statement. Instead of sadness, she dies of the same heart condition but this time as opposed to the foretelling of the first sentence not out of saddens but of joy. When her sister finally tells her the truth, Mrs. Mallard took the news in a hysteric way. She is said to have cried out emotionally in her sister’s arms until the moment of grief passed. She then walked to her room where her actions prove her initial reaction to being both hypocritical and ironic.
The irony is seen when she declares her freedom from what is at the time of the decree unknown to the reader. She was so overwhelmed by the imagination of her new life that her heart beat faster and her blood became warm making her whole body relax. Her self-declared freedom is also rendered ironic by the description of her perspective of Mr. Mallard. The narrator notes that Mrs. Mallard would cry again at the sight of her deceased husband’s kind and tender hands not to mention the face, which had always looked at her with affection. From this, we question as to why she would have longed so much for freedom from the companion of a kind, tender, and loving man.
However, Chopin attempts to justify the jovial reaction by pointing out what the lady was so happy to be freed from it. Ideally, she would now live a long life for no one else but herself and that no one would ever again impulse their will on her. She fantasized about a long happy life and said a brief prayer for it. The fantasy and the prayer prove to be ironic at the mention of her past fear of the future especially hen the narrator mentions that it was only yesterday that she dreaded the thought of living for long. The last sentence crowns the irony behind the whole story when joy is said to be a probable source of death. The narrator ends the story by ironically relating how Mrs. Mallard ended up dying of happiness rather than of the sadness derived from the death of her husband.