In Kate Chopin's "The Storm", the story suggests that passion kept hidden inside will rage violently like a storm until this passion is released. Chopin relates the storm outside with the storm of emotions going on between the characters, Calixta and Alcee, inside Calixta's home. The intensity of their sexual act inside the house follows the pattern of the storm outside. Their passion climaxes and diminishes with the storm. .
The storm outside had been brewing for some time, just as it had been between Calixta and Alcee. As the storm outside increases, the sexual tension between Calixta and Alcee increases. They move through the rooms of the house until they reach Calixta's bedroom. We see a lack of passion in marriage represented by the separate beds that Calixta and her husband, Bobinot, have. But the room's description also hints at the mystery of passion: "The door stood open, and the room with its white, monumental bed, its closed shutters, looked dim and mysterious." These images seem to contrast one another, the white purity of innocence versus the dark passion that lies within. .
Also, Chopin alludes to the character's attraction to each other from a previous meeting, and how the fiery passion between them is smothered by society's views on premarital sex and virginity. But Alcee and Calixta are not "pure" in this meeting. Both are in marriages that lack passion and this passion which they desire is free to be experienced in this moment. Just like the storm beating down the barriers of the house trying to expose them to the outside elements, the barriers between Calixta and Alcee were diminishing. .
The storm rages on and the drama of the lightning intensifies their feelings. "The playing of lightning was incessant. A bolt struck a tall chinaberry tree at the edge of the field. It filled all visible space with a blinding glare and the crash seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon.
