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The absence of female consciousness in Kate Chopin’s The Storm
Yi Zheng
PROF. Zachary Tutlane
Dec 25, 2022
Abstract
In the story of Kate Chopin’s “The Tempest,” the heroine Calix gets the awakening of female consciousness in a derailment. This paper will study and analyze the defects of Calix’s female consciousness, that is, although she has awakened her self-consciousness and sexual consciousness, she does not consciously make any adjustments to her life, nor does she consciously pursue equality, freedom, or independence. In other words, although Calixta is aware of the problems in life, due to social, environmental, or life experience and other reasons, he did not seek solutions to the problems. Because of this, s Calixta’s elf awareness may hurt herself and the people around her. Although the ending of the story seems beautiful, Calixta’s tragic fate is dooming.
The thesis consists of five parts, including an introduction and a conclusion. The introduction mainly introduces the plot of the story and the purpose and significance of the paper. The first chapter is a summary, which introduces the author, his works, and a literature review of his works. The second part expounds on the theoretical basis of the paper, providing the theoretical basis and examples for the argument of the article. The third part mainly analyzes the defects of female consciousness from the causes of the defects, the performance in the text, the author’s opposition to this, and the negative impact of the defects on the characters in the text. Finally, the conclusion part will summarize the defects of female consciousness in the article and explore the practical significance of studying this defect by comparing Calix with modern women.
With the rise and development of the feminist movement, feminism has gradually become and remains an important issue in modern times. In Kate Chopin’s era, female consciousness is still in an embryonic stage, imperfect, immature, and even not normal due to social environment, religion, tradition, and other reasons. But now, in the 21st century, female consciousness is still not perfect (Kollontai). Reviewing the early literary works of feminism may help the progress of modern feminism.
Introduction
The Storm of Kate Chopin tells a story in which Calixta, the heroine, is duly married to a stolid good man Bobinot and has been kept a housewife. Then, during a storm when her husband and son are out, she has a sexual affair with her old lover Alcee Laballiere at home. Eventually, after the storm has passed, Alcee leaves her husband and son. Without the affair being discovered, the family enjoys a great dinner with a laugh and happiness. This thesis is going to study the deficiency of feminist awareness shown in Calixta. The thesis argues that the heroine does show some self-awareness or sexual awareness. Nevertheless, she doesn’t have any consciousness to make the adjustment or pursuit equality, freedom, or independence. As a result, such self-awareness becomes an unstable factor for her and her family.
After three waves of feminist movements beginning in 1848, feminism has gradually become an important issue around the world and remains so to this day (PimaLib_JessicaP). Even so, as feminism mainly pursuits equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women, it is not proper to simply use feminism to study Kate Chopin’s The Storm, because the story shows barely any inequality to the heroin Calixta who is a cheater, but much unfairness to Bobinot. But the story indeed shows feminist awareness, which is defective, immature, and somehow abnormal because of the social environment, religion, tradition, etc. However, many scholars view The Storm without considering its prematurity. The analysis of the deficiency is quite little. So, the first purpose of the thesis is to explore such a field in an attempt at filling the gap.
Then, in the 21st century, feminism is still a heated issue (KEEFE). An increasing number of people advocate equal rights between females and males. But sometimes these feminists try to protect women’s rights so hard that they ignore some of the equal responsibilities that should be taken by females, such as loyalty to the spouse, in this case. Moreover, it must be admitted that feminist awareness is still not perfect. It is even far from good in countries less developed. Unfortunately, there are similarities between the feminist awareness of Calixta and that of women today. A great number of girls are found relying on men, being void housewives, or only aware of physical or material needs. By adopting feminist criticism to analyze the feminist awareness of Calixta in The Storm, the second purpose of this thesis is to study the deficiency of feminist awareness in the early stage in the hope that it will help to improve feminist awareness in the present day.
Chapter One The Literature Review of The Storm and Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin and The Storm
Kate Chopin (1850-1904), originally named Katherine O’Flaherty, was born in St. Louis, USA in 1850. Her father was a successful merchant, while her mother was an aristocratic woman from a Creole family. Chopin lost her father at five, and then she lived with her mother and grandmother. From a very young age, Chopin started to learn piano, and poetry and read heavily. Charles Dickens and Walter Scott were her favorites. And her love for literature, music, and art never stopped in her life.
Kate Chopin got married at 19 but widowed at 32 with 6 children (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin). She lost several relatives during her lifetime, which gave her a deep understanding of life. And all her life experiences laid a solid foundation for her advanced feminist awareness, artistry, and philosophical thoughts in her works. Chopin did not begin her writing career until she was about 40. Not until the middle of the 20th century did Kate Chopin recognized in public. She was then highly praised, called “one of the forerunners of feminist writers” and received comments like “The greatest achievement of Kate Chopin was that she broke new ground in American literature. She was the first woman writer in her country to accept passion as a legitimate subject for serious, outspoken fiction”.
Although Kate Chopin is most famous for her novel The Awakening, many of her short stories are also remarkable. And The Storm is one of them. According to the notes Chopin, The Storm is written in 1898. But since Chopin was conscious that the story involved a sensitive depiction of sex, and thus was impossible to be published concerning the social morality at that time, she had no intention to bring it out. Only after 40 years was The Storm published, after which it received a pretty lot of recognition and acceptance.
The Storm has most of the critiques are made from the perspective of the feminist theme (htt1). But owing to the ambiguous attitude towards the characters and the large quantity of irony used in the story, the critiques are rather opposite. Besides, the writing techniques like the irony and symbolism in the story are also analyzed a lot. And the story is also paraphrased from a psychological level. A group of critics who hold a critical mind believes that because Chopin made no moral judgment on the story, it is immoral. And those who hold a positive attitude think that through the story, Kate Chopin repudiated the patriarchal society, broke the rigid control of social ethics, and advocated feminist awareness and rebellious spirit. When many of Chopin’s characters realize their subordinacy, they rise and struggle to become independent individuals. There is also a group of scholars analyzing the irony and symbolism used in The Storm. Also, this essay illustrates the verbal irony, situational irony, structural irony, and dramatic irony applied in The Storm.
Chapter Two Theoretical Basis
It is widely acknowledged that “Feminism is a collection of movements and ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism). And then, “Broadly defined, feminist criticism examines how literature and other cultural productions reinforce or undermine the oppression of women. It is the concern of feminist critics to probe how women are relegated to a secondary position. Feminism, indeed, represents one of the most significant social and aesthetic revolutions of modern times. As for feminist awareness, it is the ability to feel, perceive, or be conscious of events, objects, thoughts, emotions, or sensory patterns of the female herself. From the perspective of biology, it is also defined as a woman’s perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. At this level of consciousness, sensory data can be confirmed by an observer without necessarily implying understanding.
Although in The Storm, the heroin indeed shows some feminist awareness during her extramarital affairs, it is inappropriate to solely interpret The Storm by feminism. The reason lies in the fact that feminists advocate that females have overall equal rights to males’, but the story has little to do with the unequal treatment of heroin. On the contrary, cheating of Calixta is rather unfair to the husband. Then, considering the undeniable feminist awareness shown in the story and the potential negative effects and consequences, the study of The Storm should be from the deficiency of excessive feminist awareness.
Moreover, a study of extramarital affairs shows that clients of individual therapists, social workers, and attorneys have admitted that extramarital affairs have affected their lives with the following consequences: breaking of religious teaching; breaking of trust; guilt; dishonesty; lies; anger; humiliation; Depression; suicide; homicide; marital conflict; separation; divorce; anxiety; regret; lost respect and love; disruption of careers, marriages, and families; loss of reputation; unwanted pregnancies; abortions, sexually transmitted disease; loss of time and money; fears; jealousy; and sexual conflict and dysfunctions. A famous study in 2015 found that 93% of people admitted lying to psychotherapists. A study in 2018 found that 84% of people ignored some things, such as details of sexual life or suicidal thoughts (Lebow).
To conclude, it is okay to have feminist awareness, but when such awareness gets excessive and beyond the legal and moral norms, it will bring misfortune, harm, and calamity.
Chapter Three The Deficiency of the Feminist Awareness
3.1 The Cause of the Deficiency
The deficiency of the feminist awareness in The Storm, the self-awareness or sexual awareness without any consciousness to make the adjustment or the pursuit of equality, freedom, or independence, doesn’t come from anywhere. It is closely related to the factors such as social environment, values, religions, morality, and so forth.
Kate Chopin lived in a patriarchal time. In a society dominated by men, women were subjected to oppression and discrimination. Such discrimination first showed in the values that women are inferior to men concerning intelligence and physical strength. Thus, it was believed that women should be positioned only at home while the colorful world outside belongs to men. Females’ obligation was to be obedient daughters, faithful wives, and considerate mothers. Furthermore, women at that time do not have economic independence. Females did not have property rights. They were seen as the belongings of the male, the appends. Although the social development and reformation in the 19th century did bring some opportunities for women, traditional patriarchal ideas still prevailed.
The Storm is written in 1898, the late 19th century. The social background of the story is explicitly the same as the society where Chopin lived. In other words, Calixta is faced with all the problems women face in reality. And it is owing to the overwhelming repression from various aspects of life that Calixta doesn’t dare to or even doesn’t think of making any change in her life after her starting to have awareness of herself and sex. Thus, all these repressions are the cause of the deficiency.
First and foremost, from the social level, Calixta is confronted by both mental repression and sexual repression. As for her mental repression, Calixta is a young and beautiful woman, but all she does every day is housework. Without a real job, she doesn’t have her value but is more like a decoration at home which does not have a consciousness of itself. Before the storm comes, “She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm.” Calixta was so busy with the housework that she is in a state of numbness, blind both to the outside situation and her inner passion and needs. Additionally, Calixta’s mental depression can be seen in the attitude of her husband Bobinot. When Bobinot had the son Bibi come back home with all the mud and traces on their clothes, they “prepared for the worst – the meeting with an overscrupulous housewife”. It indicates that Bobinot does not really cherish the wife’s devotion to the family but thinks of her as overscrupulous instead. It is such repression that the dedication is not treasured by others.
Then, concerning sexual repression, it is worth noticing that in the 19th century, the absolute control of sex by males was an important aspect of the patriarchy’s oppression of females. The ideal woman at that time should have no sexual desire, not to mention sex drive. And this is also the case with Calixta. And this can be inferred from several details of the story. It is said that “Adjoining was her bedroom, with Bibi’s couch alongside her own”. And it suggests that she barely has any sex life with her husband. And when Calixta and Alcee have the affair, it is said that “Her firm, elastic flesh that was known for the first time its birthright…”. From the depiction, especially the phrase “for the first time”, we can indicate that the sexual life between Calixta and her husband is not satisfactory. Moreover, when Alcee leaves the house, Calixta “lifted her pretty chin in the air and laughed aloud”. Comparing her state of numbness before the storm and the laugh after, we can tell that Calixta does suffer from sexual depression, and she is happy after the storm because of the temporary release from it.
Some other 2 significant factors mentioned in the story are religion and morality. When Calixta realizes the storm, the second thing she does, after closing the windows and doors first, is to gather “Bobinot’s Sunday clothes”. The Sunday clothes are the symbol of the religion. And levees Calixta mentions when she is with Alcee are the symbol of morality. Bound by the 2 factors, Calixta is expected to be obedient, innocent, and satisfied with her life. Calixta does have the need to be respected and to have a satisfactory sex life. But she is under a state of repression for so long that she is numb and unable to make adjustments, so the affair happened and people get hurt.
3.2 The Manifestation of the Deficiency
The reason why having self-awareness or sexual awareness without any consciousness to adjust or pursue equality, freedom, or independence is a deficiency of feminist awareness shown in Calixta in The Storm lies in the fact that, unlike most women at that time, Calixta can adjust and to make her life better.
The principal reason for Calixta’s being able to do better is that she has a husband less manipulative, less aggressive, more reasonable, and more moderate than others. Firstly, Bobinot is at least a reasonable man. From the beginning of the story, we know that Bobinot “was accustomed to converse on terms of perfect equality with his little son” and “Bibi was four years old and looked very wise”. What kind of father would talk to the sun with perfect equality? He must be reasonable, mild, or even wise. And what kind of father can raise a four-year-old boy and make him look very wise? He must be educated, virtuous, or even wise. So Bobinot must, to some degree, have these qualities. Secondly, Bobinot cares about his family. He cares about Calixta. Knowing that she was very fond of shrimp, he buys some to comfort her when the storm is coming. He cares about his son. He raises Bibi to be wise and considerate. He also cares about the family’s properties. When he and Bibi go home with all the mud on the clothes, he says, “you ought’ to put on those good pants” And he alone earns money to support the family. Calixta devotes a lot to the family, and so does this man. Finally, Bobinot is a little bit henpecked. This can be seen from the situation after the storm. Bobinot keeps talking “My! Bibi, what will you mama say! You ought to be ashamed” and something like that, because he is afraid that his wife would be annoyed. He even “scraped the mud off Bibi’s bare legs and feet with a stick”. He and Bibi “entered cautiously at the back door” and only began to relax and enjoy themselves after making sure Calixta wasn’t angry. All these show that Bobinot is not a very dominant husband. To conclude, Bobinot is a reasonable, henpecked husband who cares about his family very much.
So, it can be indicated that Calixta has a say at home. So Calixta starts to have the awareness of herself and her sexual needs. If she tells Bobinot that she is not very satisfied with her life and that she wanted to be respected and cherished as an individual, will he make some improvement to please his wife? He likely will. But Calixta doesn’t do anything other than have a sexual affair with the ex-lover.
Calixta, in the story, is a wife who can control the family life. When Bobinot and Bibi come home after the storm, they are so anxious that they have prepared explanations and apologies. And they do not relax and enjoy themselves until confirming that Calixta is not angry. This presents her place of her at home. Meanwhile, Calixta is a wife being attended to. Besides that, Bobinot alone earns the living for the family and Bobinot buys shrimp for her, Bibi is very considerate too. The first sentence Bibi says after he thinks it is going to rain is that “Mama will be afraid, yes”. And when Bobinot tells that Calixta will get help from someone named Sylvie, Bibi replied that “No; she ends got Sylvie. Sylvie helped’ her yesterday”. Bibi knows clearly about his mother’s work. In short, Calixta has the solicitude of her family. Finally, Calixta cherishes her family, or she won’t devote herself to it, nor make the dinner a feast with laughs.
All the features of Bobinot and Calixta suggest that there’s a high possibility for Calixta to act and live more happily. However, because of the long-lasting repression and the religious and moral constraint, Calixta is not fully aware of her need, and she is unable to act upon it even though she can in some way control her own life. Compared with the women who marry aggressive husbands and have no say at home, Calixta is lucky that she has the power to change her life through a communication or some other ways, but she is also unlucky that she does not realize there is an opportunity.
3.3 The Harmful Influence of the Deficiency
Another important reason why Calixta’s doing nothing to change her life is called a deficiency of feminist awareness is that this brings a harmful influence on Calixta herself and the people around her.
First, Calixta’s unconscious of the fact that she can change her life through her self-awareness and sexual awareness has a harmful influence on her. As discussed above in the first chapter, Calixta has long suffered from mental and sexual repression. So her life is pretty boring and numb with the everyday housework. And it can be told that her husband and son are very afraid of her that she gets irritated easily. These may all be the consequence of a dull life. Furthermore, her sexual affair with Alcee is a breakout of her sexual awareness and also the result of her repressive life. But this temporary release will not do her any good. Under the condition that Calixta doesn’t communicate with her husband and tries to make a better living, if she does not see Alcee anymore, she will get more depressed since she has had sexual awareness and has enjoyed fine sex but couldn’t have it anymore. However, if she keeps seeing Alcee, there is a higher risk that their relationship will be discovered. Hence, Calixta may lose the peaceful life she has and get the blame from others. Thus, such deficiency can hurt her, and the best way to settle her feminist awareness is to positively make some adjustments to her life and find her way to equality and freedom.
Then, this will hurt Bobinot and Bibi. Just like what is said above, Bobinot has been a reasonable, kind, and innocent man. He is a bit dull but does nothing wrong. If he knows about the affair of his wife, it is very possible that he gets very heartbroken, but refuses to leave her and even tries to forgive her. Even if he doesn’t know, what happened is still a betrayal, a hurt to him. And Bibi, the son, is just a four years old boy who loves his parents. It is very cruel to him if the affair is disclosed.
In addition, the family of Alcee will also be hurt. That night, Alcee Laballiere writes to his wife – “It was a loving letter, full of tender solicitude. He told her not to hurry back, but if she and the babies liked it at Biloxi, to stay a month longer.” He tells the wife that he misses her as well. The letter not only reveals the hypocrisy of Alcee but also leaves the readers a question. Why does he ask his wife to stay outside one month longer? Alcee will likely approach Calixta again and again. And their love affair might become regular. And this is badly unfair to Clarisse, Alcee’s wife, and the babies, no matter whether they find it out or not, especially under the occasion that at that time the family and the husband were bare all a woman has.
At last, such deficiency will bring harm to society. It is the truth that Calixta gets repressed in her family life. But it cannot be a valid reason for her cheating. There are better ways to settle her problems without betraying or hurting innocent people such as communication, leaving the husband, pursuing self-value, and so forth. If this kind of cheating method is justified and tolerated by the public, the impact may be deep and destructive. Although it must be acknowledged that the moral standard in the 19th century was somehow unfair, some part of it was still reasonable. Cheating was and will never be a good thing. So, the deficiency of feminist awareness shown in Calixta hurts Calixta herself, the people around her as well as society.
3.4 The Attitude of the Author
What happens between Calixta, and Alcee exactly conforms to the definition of adultery. However, instead of condemning them or making a moral judgment on them, the author Kate Chopin pictures the sexual affair with beautiful and poetic words. This leaves a great deal of ambiguity for scholars and critics. As mentioned above, a group of scholars believes the author holds a negative attitude towards such behavior, whereas another group holds the point that Chopin is for Heroin affairs. Nevertheless, there is plenty of evidence showing that Kate Chopin has a complex attitude toward the story. She supports the sexual desire of females, but she is against the extramarital affair.
Above all, Kate Chopin considers sex as a pretty and poetic thing. As far as she sees, sex, even for women, is a natural right. This can be seen from the words she uses to describe the sex – “Her firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for the first time its birthright, was like a creamy lily that the sun invites to contribute its breath and perfume to the undying life of the world” and “The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his sensuous nature that had never yet been reached.” Words like lily and white flame are habitually the symbols of purity. And “without guile or trickery” shows the attitude of the author more directly. Chopin is strong in sex and sexual desire. She believes that sex has nothing to do with evil or dirt.
Yet, there is proof showing that towards the extramarital affair, Chopin has negative feelings. The first evidence is the portrait of Calixta – “Her lips were as red and moist as pomegranate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully” According to the depiction, Calixta is very much like a seducer. Moreover, when a bolt strikes a tree, Calixta “staggered backward” to the direction of her bedroom. From all these details, Calixta, to some extent, proactively has sex with Alcee. She crosses the moral boundary deliberately and hurts the two families. In the story, while the storm is the symbol of sexual desire and passion, the levee is the symbol of moral boundaries. And one feature of the levee is that once it breaks down, a great number of people will get hurt and massive damages will occur. Calixta intentionally breaks the levee and brings potential hurt to innocent families.
And the most paramount evidence of the author’s negative attitude lies in the abundant irony used in the story. When Bobinot is worrying about Calixta and buying shrimp for her, the latter is having extramarital sex with others. Although Calixta is an understanding wife and loving mother, she feels happy and not guilty at all after the affair. She says that she worries about Bobinot and Bibi, but she does not. Alcee comes to the house from the front door, while Bobinot goes back from the back door. The family laughs much and so loud, but it is just a dinner with nothing special except that Calixta just had sex with others. Alcee writes to his wife and says that he misses them, but he just cheated on her. And the most dramatic irony is the last sentence of the story – “So the storm passed, and everyone was happy.” On the surface, everyone is happy. But concerning what is discussed in the third part of chapter two, everyone is indeed hurt. All these plots form a strong sense of irony where the author’s attitude and judgment hide. The sharp contrasts in the ironies reflect the fact that Kate Chopin does not advocate the extramarital affair that occurred on Calixta.
To summarize, Kate Chopin has complex feelings toward the character Calixta. On one hand, she supports the sexual desire of women. But on the other hand, she opposes the extramarital affair between Calixta and Alcee.
Works Cited
n.d.
27 December 2022.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Chopin. 7 December 2022.
KEEFE, SYDNEY. Ed. THE PLAID ZEBRA. 18 October 2017.
Kollontai. 5 August 2012.
Lebow, Hilary I. 15 June 2021.
PimaLib_JessicaP. https://www.library.pima.gov/blogs/post/first-wave-feminism-and-the-seneca-falls-convention/. 19 July 2016.
