Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Storm, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sex, Gender, and Liberation
Sex and Nature
Marriage and Infidelity
Summary
Analysis
Alcée’s wife, Clarisse, is happy to receive the letter. She, too, is doing well, as “many of her old friends and acquaintances” are nearby. Clarisse thinks warmly of her husband but is delighted to have a break from wifely duties, and particularly from “their intimate conjugal life.” The story concludes with a summation of everyone's mood: “the storm passed, and every one was happy.”
Able to meet their sexual needs elsewhere, Alcée and Calixta are both able to give their spouses what they desire. Like Calixta, Clarisse appears happier when able to tap into the younger side of her personality. However, unlike Calixta, the ability to tap into the younger side of her character results from the absence of sex with Alcée, again indicating that her husband wants more of her time than she cares to provide. Specifically, Clarisse is happy to have a break from "intimate conjugal life," or having sex with Alcée. This implies that, for Clarisse, sex with Alcée itself is essentially a chore that she is obligated to fulfill as a wife. Readers may remember that, earlier in the story, Alcée is able to experience new levels of pleasure while having sex with Calixta, which suggests that his love life with his wife is unfulfilling. It's reasonable to assume, then, that the restrictions of marriage squeeze the pleasure out of Alcée and Clarisse’s sex life. The story concludes with “the storm passed, and everyone was happy.” But, of course, it was not the storm that improved everyone’s mood—it was sex between Alcée and Calixta.
Themes
Literary Devices
