Gender Stereotypes In Kate Chopin's Short Story 'The Storm'

Leeanna Whittle

Ms. Hutto

English 3-1st

26 February 2016

Gender Stereotypes as far back as the 19th Century

Kate Chopin is an American author who lived in the 19th century (Wyatt). Kate Chopin is known for being way beyond her time (Evans 262). She wrote about emotions and conflicts no other author of her time would ever think to write about (Evans 262). She grew up with two powerful women, her mom and grandmother, who influenced her views on society (Wyatt). One of her more controversial work is her short story entitled “The Storm”. In her short story “The Storm”, Kate Chopin uses symbolism, Emotional conflict, and diction to display a woman’s right to her own body and point out women stereotypes to produce a change in society.

Chopin ever so slightly suggested women’s stereotypical roles. In “The Storm” Alcee was the one who took and was being the more dominate one. Being the male Alcee was the one who society expected to take over in such a circumstance. Chopin also showed that Calixta was the one who was like left home to clean. This suggested the stereotype of women were meant to cook and clean and basically be servants, they were not really treated much as people. Alcee taking over also suggested how women were there for their bodies and were objects for sex. Petry states that Chopin tended to incorporate attacks on adultery in her writings by using irony (Petry 18). Chopin uses such beautiful diction; she described every single things in such detail that you cannot help but feel what the characters are feeling. This is the reason people often respond to Chopin’s characters. Chopin’s characters are “all” human, people do not respond to primarily because of the character’s gender (Petry 27). People respond because Chopin’s characters tend to be ‘real’ and not robot like (Pertry 27). Pertry also states that in “The Storm”, much like other stories Chopin has written, the characters are very strong, and the characters also have a large sexual passion (Petry 27) . Chopin’s characters tend to still have this passion even on the most unusual and dangerous circumstances (Petry 27). Chopin wrote one of the most controversial lines in the 19th century. The most controversial line in the whole story is the last time. The last line has shocked many twenty-first century readers, when the nineteenth century readers read it they were livid. The last speaks of how the storm has passed but everyone was content. Many readers were furious about how the characters did not get punished for their sins (Skaggs 62). Skaggs states that many readers find the ending “unforgiveable” (Skaggs 62). In the short story it states that during the