Complete Stylistic analysis

The analyzed story is under the title “The Storm” written by Kate Chopin. The author of this short story, Kate Chopin (the real name Katherine O'Flaherty), is a famous American author of short stories and novels of the 19^th century. She is now considered to have been a forerunner of the feminist authors of the 20th century. Her father, Thomas O'Flaherty, was a successful businessman, and her mother, Eliza Faris, was a well-connected member of the French community in St. Louis, so Kate belonged to the upper-class society. Chopin's writing style was influenced by her admiration of Guy de Maupassant. Her important short stories included "Desiree's Baby" (published in 1893), "The Story of an Hour" (1894), and "The Storm"(1898). "The Storm" is a sequel to "The 'Cadian Ball", which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk (1894).

The story is devoted to the problem of people’s relationships, which are compared in this story to the stormy weather. Moreover, there arises the problem of woman’s fate and its place in the society. The plot describes an affair between Calixta, wife to Bobinot and mother to four-year old Bibi, and Alcee, husband to Clarisse, during a terrible rain storm. The storm, in this context, brightly symbolizes the passion and personal feelings of the main characters, mainly Calixta and Alcee. From my point of view, the last sentence from the story ”So the storm passed and every one was happy” reveals the main idea, which claims that all the bad things always pass, and nothing can prevent us from being happy, like in the case of the main characters. It is shown in the story, that their affair didn’t influence their conjugal life.

The events in the analyzed story happened in Louisiana. Kate Chopin brilliantly described the setting, appropriate to the main theme. The author created the threatening images, which prepare and warn us of something unexpectable and frightening, like “…sombre clouds that were rolling with sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a sullen, threatening roar”; “The rain beat upon the low, shingled roof with a force and clatter that threatened to break an entrance and deluge them there.”. Through these descriptions the emotional state of the characters reflects. Speaking about the general mood of the story, it should be noted that it is an important part of the setting description. The mood and tone is rather changeable, as the weather has an ability to change. At first, the tone of the story is dull and gloomy, but as the storm passes, it becomes  joyful and optimistic. The changes in the general mood depict the personal inner changes of the characters and their attitude toward others.

From the point of view of presentation the story is the 3^rd person narrative with the elements of a dialogue, primarily between Bibi and Bobinot (at the very beginning of the story), Calixta and Alcee (during the climax).

The main characters we meet in this story are characterized primarily through their speech. It is obvious that characters’ speech peculiarities depict social background and the level of their education, like in the examples: “"My! Bibi, w'at will yo' mama say! You ought to be ashame'. You oughta' put on those good pants. Look at 'em! An' that mud on yo' collar! How you got that mud on yo' collar, Bibi?”; “J'vous rponds, we'll have a feas' to-night! umph-umph!". However, Bibi’s speech is defined by his age “No; she ent got Sylvie. Sylvie was helpin' her yistiday', as there is en evident sentence in the story: “Bibi was four years old and looked very wise”. We can also assume, that Bobinot just imitates the speech of his son, because it is said in the text “Bobint, who was accustomed to converse on terms of perfect equality with his little son…”.

The protagonist, Calixta, is rather a passionate and expressive personality, because her speech and sayings are full of exclamations and exclamatory sentences, which she uses in absolutely different situations, such “My! what a rain!”; “lf this keeps up, Dieu sait if the levees goin' to stan it!”; “Shrimps! Oh, Bobint! you too good fo' anything!. At the beginning, like a storm, Calixta is quiet and calm, but as storm grows its force, Calixta’s temptations and feelings are gaining strength with the emergence of her former lover Alcee.

The plot includes the traditional parts of the story: exposition (when the author describes the setting and the approaching storm, which makes Bibi and Bobinot to stay at Friedheimer’s store), the development of the plot, or the rising actions (when Calixta notices that it begins to grow dark and something bad must happen and when she starts her conversation with Alcee), the climax (when Calixta and Alcee give vent to their emotions and desire, and deepen into the world of passion and love during a terrible storm outside), and the denouement (when the storm passes, Bibi and Bobinot return home, and the author describes the improved family relations of both the main characters.).

In order to portray the characters, their emotions and feelings, to describe the setting and to render the general atmosphere of the story vividly and convincingly the author uses a huge diversity of stylistic devices.

Speaking about lexical stylistic devices we should point to the usage of such devices, as metaphor, which is used mainly for the description of the main characters and their appearance or personal feelings, like in the examples “She was a revelation in that dim, mysterious chamber”, “Her mouth was a fountain of delight”, “Bibi was the picture of pathetic resignation.”. It should be mentioned the cases of personification, which reveals the idea of the link between the natural phenomena and people’s feelings, and that’s why the author gives human traits to some phenomena: “clouds that were rolling with sinister intention from the west”, “the storm…shook the wooden store and seemed to be ripping great furrows in the distant field”, “the water beat in upon the boards in driving sheets”. The story is evidently full of epithets, which helps us to create the images of the characters, to deepen into the ‘stormy’ atmosphere and to follow the events, that occur in the plot development. There are some examples of epithets: “a sullen, threatening roar”,” a blinding glare”, “warm, palpitating body”, “a beaming face”, etc.

The author uses the cases of simile in order to depict the state of passion and delight, which prevails in Calixta’s mind, when she is in the Alcee’s arms: “Her lips were as red and moist as pomegranate seed”, “as white as the couch she lay upon”.

In order to portray the atmosphere and to confirm the fact that Calixta and Alcee did not heed the storm outside, the author used the case of hyperbole, which  exaggerate their passionate state: “It was stiflingly hot”. The case of oxymoron is obvious in the story “a soothing rhythm”, and also the case of litotes “felt no uneasiness”, which performs the statement in the form of negation. The last sentence from the story “So the storm passed and every one was happy” is a vivid example of zeugma, because in this sentence two different meanings are combined together.

As for the morphological structure of the story, it should be mentioned that expressive synonyms of the adjectives in the text are represented by such stylistically marked structures as: N1 of N2 “the playing of the lightning” “the growl of the thunder”, A of N “fuller of figure” and of-phrase “gust of wind”.

Phonetic stylistic devices are presented through the usage of onomatopoeia and alliteration in order to emphasize some parts of the story or just to brighten the content. The case of onomatopoeia is “umph-umph!” and alliteration is obvious in “infatuation and desire for her flesh”, “hand stroked with a soothing rhythm his muscular shoulders.”

It is clear that there are a lot of syntactical devices in the story. In order to emphasize the utterance and make it more rhythmic, the author uses asyndeton in the sentence: “If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate; a passionate creature whose very defenselessness had made her defense, against which his honor forbade him to prevail.”. It should be mentioned also the case of inversion which is aimed at making one part of the sentence more prominent than other, thus showing Clarisse devotion to her husband Alcee, like in the example: “Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while.”

To make an influence on a reader and make him to feel the romantic atmosphere between the main characters, the case of ordinary repetition is used: “Oh! she remembered; for in Assumption he had kissed her and kissed and kissed her; until his senses would well nigh fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight.” Focusing the reader’s attention on some words or phrases, the author uses detached constructions: “ ‘I brought you some shrimps, Calixta,’ offered Bobinot, hauling the can from his ample side pocket and laying it on the table.”, “She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone.” and syntactical split or separation: “Bobinot and Bibi, trudging home, stopped without at the cistern to make themselves presentable.”

Summing up my stylistic analysis, I want to say that this story is really worth reading and analyzing. The intriguing title “The Storm” draws the reader’s attention and then appears a desire to read this story and to find out, what it is about, and why the author uses such symbol in his or her story. I like Chopin’s style of writing and that she brightens the story with a huge diversity of phonetic, lexical and syntactical stylistic devices. So, I advise everyone to read and enjoy this short story by Kate Chopin.

This is the last sentence in this story! Frankly speaking, I like it very much, because it carries a lot of positive! It shows us, that all the bad things always pass, and nothing can prevent us from being happy!

General impression

From my point of view, this short story under the title "The Storm" by Kate Chopin is written with a hidden sense, and our main task, as the readers, to find, explain and interpret it. There are also some symbols in the story, such as 'rain', 'storm', 'sun', etc., which symbolize in some way personal feelings, actions and minds of the main characters (Calixta and Alcée). I think, that Chopin's technique, which is aimed  at making the link between human feelings and natural phenomena, is just great! It awakens our imagination and helps the emergence of images in our minds through the associations.