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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. 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.
In Assumption, Alcée’s concern for Calixta’s virtue, or at least for their reputations, drives him from her in time to “save” her purity, if not her reputation. Yet this quote makes it clear that each awoke passion in the other during their earlier encounter, and it sets up the sudden decision to indulge their passion now. In Assumption, Alcée and Calixta could not avoid prying eyes or gossiping tongues, but the storm grants them an hour or so of privacy. In addition, Calixta is no longer “inviolate,” or virginal; and Clarisse is absent. The social mores seem to be suspended, for the duration of the storm, so nothing stands in the way of passion during this encounter.
She was a revelation in that dim, mysterious chamber; as white as the couch she lay on. 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.
This and other descriptions of Calixta and Alcée’s lovemaking suggest the change that Calixta undergoes during the story. She and Bobinôt have been married five years, and they have a child. Yet Calixta has not, during their marriage, experienced physical passion and satisfaction, or at least not to this magnitude. Her response to Alcée’s matching desire reveals how deeply female desire can run, and how long it can be hidden, even from a woman herself. Calixta’s cheerful mood after the storm and her laughter, so loud it can be heard at Alcée’s plantation, are unconstrained and free, in contrast to her fear and fretfulness before the storm.
