Chopin certainly puts the ingredients together for adultery to take place in "The Storm," but the foreshadowing is very subtle, so it definitely sets the reader up to be surprised by Calixta and Alcee's infidelity.
The first hint Chopin gives is this:
As she stepped outside, Alcée Laballière rode in at the gate. She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone.
Readers can infer that Calixta knows Alcee from this passage, since the narrator states she had not seen him often since she got married. The fact that the narrator comments that she had never seen Alcee while she was alone after her marriage implies that there was some type of attraction between them or that they were in a past relationship.
Shortly after this, the narrator mentions that Alcee intended to stay outside on the porch, which throws the reader off by making them think that Alcee has honorable intentions. Due to the strength of the storm, however, he is forced to go inside for shelter.
The next hint of the upcoming fidelity is this:
Calixta put her hands to her eyes, and with a cry, staggered backward. Alcée's arm encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him.
"Bonté!" she cried, releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the window, "the house'll go next! If I only knew where Bibi was!" She would not compose herself; she would not be seated.
In this passage, Chopin again skillfully plays with the reader. First, there is the hint of sexual tension with Alcee pulling Calixta to him, and then Calixta pulls away, speaking with concern of her husband.
Considering this story was written in 1898 by a woman, the explicit details of Calixta and Alcee's love affair would have been shocking. But for the modern reader, what is most striking is Chopin's skill as a writer. With the framework of the raging storm, this story could have taken many different turns. Chopin artfully dangles a carrot, then draws it away, leaving the reader wondering if their suspicions are warranted. When the consummation occurs, and then the two characters return to their lives seemingly happy with their spouses, the reader is left to wonder about human nature and whether or not any of us can truly know the heart of another.
In Kate Chopin's short story entitled "The Storm," a woman named Calixta is unfaithful to her husband, Bobinôt, during a bad storm that brings a former lover, Alcée Laballière, to her doorstep. Chopin helps to set a foreboding mood—suggesting that something less than ideal is coming—when the narrator describes the dark clouds that appear to roll in with:
. . . sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a sullen, threatening roar.
The storm "[shakes] the wooden store" at which Bobinôt and his son, Bibi, wait, and it seems to rip "great furrows in the distant field." Both the personification of the storm as sinister and the comparison of it to a lion (or some other big cat that might roar) imply its power, and they seem to create a mood of expectation, of something coming.
At home, Calixta is unconcerned; in fact, she hardly notices the growing storm. She is perspiring heavily and takes off a garment that covers her neck, and it is then that Alcée Laballière rides up. The narrator tells us that:
She had not seen him very often since her marriage, and never alone.
This lines indicates that there may be some impropriety in their being alone, especially with Calixta's husband away from home. Our concern grows when Calixta invites this man—with whom she is never alone—to come right into her home. For these reasons, we should not be surprised when the two get together.
At one point, Calixta is described as behaving "nervously," and she has a "greatly disturbed look on her face." Lightning strikes, and she "stagger[s] backward" when Alcée draws her "close and spasmodically to him." It is as though they are uncomfortable themselves, and this makes the reader feel uncomfortable as well. The tension mounts as the storm's force grows. We see this in the description, especially, of Calixta's own sexual response:
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. The generous abundance of her passion, without guile or trickery, was like a white flame which penetrated and found response in depths of his own sensuous nature that had never yet been reached.
Such a description is certainly explicit, and the fact that Calixta does not experience this kind of passion with her husband could certainly make us uncomfortable.
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