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Given that the story is called “The Storm,” it is not surprising that the natural world acts strongly on the story’s events, setting the stage for the affair, giving shape to the lovers’ tryst, and finally releasing the tension of the story. As a writer of local color stories, Chopin often highlights the details of Louisiana parishes and bayous and the of city of New Orleans. The lives of her rural characters in particular depend closely on their physical settings because they are often planters and farmers whose experiences are guided by seasonal tasks and subject to uncontrollable forces such as drought, flood, and wind. And, unlike in the crowded streets of New Orleans, people in rural areas are separated by the tracts of land they tend. This is why, for example, Alcée is caught by the storm before he can get home.
In “The Storm,” the setting enables the tryst. The town is lightly populated, so Calixta’s house is remote enough to provide privacy, well-enclosed by trees and a good walk’s distance to the store. The weather drives Alcée to Calixta’s gallery and then shuts them in the house, where proximity and Calixta’s fear of the storm rekindle old passions. The violence of the passing storm not only confines them long enough for lovemaking but also mirrors the crescendo and decrescendo of their passion. When their passion is spent and they part, Alcée rides into a rain-washed, gleaming world made fresh by the storm. That the lovers’ minds have been similarly refreshed is clear in their responses to their families. From its onset to its departure, the storm frames Calixta and Alcée’s time together and leaves everyone “happy.”
