Journal Entry "The Storm"

"The society was agreeable; many of her old friends and acquaintances were at the bay.  And the first free breath since her marriage seemed to restore the pleasant liberty of her maiden days.  Devoted as she was to her husband, their intimate conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while.  So the storm passed and everyone was happy"(534).

"Chopin had the gift of equanimity and wrote on a lapboard in the midst of a busy household.  Many of her stories were written in a single day.  She claimed that she wrote on impulse, that she was 'completely at the mercy of unconscious selection' of subject, and that 'the polishing up process ... always proved disastrous.'  This method, although it ensured freshness and sincerity, made some of her stories anecdotal or thin"(529).

This passage comes from the end of "The Storm", describing Alcee's wife's feelings after receiving a letter from her husband telling her to feel free to stay at the bay longer if she wished.  Alcee has just had sex with Calixta during a thunderstorm.  They were lovers in the past, but Alcee ran away, pride not allowing him to violate a virgin.  However, now that she is married and not a virgin, he goes ahead.  Calixta's husband and son are out in the storm and hurry back, stopping only to clean the mud off of themselves and try to look presentable for her.  Neither person tells their spouse of their cheating during the storm, and it is presumed that everyone lives on happily ever after.

This ending seems rather shallow, unbelievable, unrealistic, and silly to me.  I doubt that in real life any affair that involved as much passion as was pictured between Alcee and Calixta would have ended nearly so innocently.  They obviously have a remaining passion for each other and both are unsatisfied with their marriages.  I believe that a more accurate picture of how this situation would end includes either, admittance and guilt by one of the involved parties, or probably more likely, continued interactions between the two and/or increased stresses within their marriages. 
At the same time, this passage and the rest of the story do convey some probably very realistic issues with marriage and gender roles at the time.  The women are both constricted by their marriages, trying to escape; something that seems to be a common theme in a lot of Chopin's writings.  This may represent a possible issue within her own marriage, but also probably represents common experiences of the time.  It also points to gender inequality and issues with traditional gender roles.  The women feel pressured to marry, yet obviously are not happy with their marriages.
The reference to "the pleasant liberty of her maiden days" implies remembering the past as better than the present.  This also seems to be something common in the two women in this story as with many in "The Awakening".  The people seem preoccupied with their past enjoyments and freedoms, leading them to feel trapped in their present situations.  They forget though, that they led themselves to this place, and are responsible for their own fates.  The women complain of issues in their marriages, yet do not try to fix them or find pleasure in what they have, but simply cheat on their husbands and contribute to the negative aspects of their present situations.