Kate Chopin's Ironic Use of Imagery in "The Storm"
...ntainers merely parallel these people. At home, Calixta, the wife, is "sewing furiously" (Chopin 77) and is totally unaware of the threatening storm. Ironically, she gets up to go about "closing windows and doors (chopin 77) to keep out the dnager in a place said later to be "too low to be struck" (Chopin 78) and closed in by "many tall trees" (Chopin 78). In other words, hers is a life that is already closed. However, it is this storm that will open it. Therefore, we step into a scene that includes characters unintentionally hanging on the edge of change, but only one will make the leap, a move taken through the path of adultery. The rage of the storm brings in an outsider-Alcee Laballiere. he is no stranger to Calixta, for he is her former lover. She sees him waiting out the storm when she goes out to bring in the laundry--another daily routine. Of course, she cannot leave him outside, so she invites him inside. Once he is in the house, the storm produces its effect. Outside, "the playing of the ligtening was (is) incessant" (Chopin 78) and "it filled (fills) all visible spaces with a blinding glare (Chopin 78) that invades "the very boards that stood (stand) upon" (Chopin 78). With this image, Chopin implies that the storm is shedding light on something, but what is it? Calixta's fear of the lightening causes her to through herself in Alcee's arms where she brings forth in him "all the old-time infatuation and desire for her flesh" (Chopin 78). He asks her if she remembers Assumption, a place where they once consummated their love. What happens here, and how does Chopin use her imagery to show it? When Alcee leaves, he does not leave hehind a ruined woman; he leaves behind a changed one. The storm comes, and like the lovers' passion, it spends itself quickly. In its wake, Calixta becomes a different person. The closing pas...