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Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.
The Color White
For Chopin’s original readers and for many readers today, white has strong associations with purity and innocence. In the story, the color white is associated with Calixta alone. Despite her maternal Cuban heritage, which readers learn about in “At the ’Cadian Ball,” Calixta’s claim to beauty is her creamy white skin. When she is a single woman, her beauty is considered pure and virginal. Alcée thinks of her as “an immaculate dove,” with the dove being white.
What is more surprising is that, as a married woman having an affair during an afternoon thunderstorm, Calixta is still associated with the color white. Her throat is white, her breasts are even whiter, and her flesh is like a “creamy lily,” a flower also associated with beauty and purity. Not only is Calixta white, but so is the “white, monumental bed,” and when she lies on it, she seems to Alcée as white as the sheets. Her passionate response to Alcée’s lovemaking is described as a “white flame.” The color of white associated repeatedly with Calixta functions as a symbolic absolution for the “sin” of her passionate affair with Alcée. Because her skin, body, bed, and even feelings of passion are described as white, the associations of purity pervade and purify the lovemaking as well. After the storm of passion passes, the narrator confirms, “every one was happy,” and no one is punished for the delight of sexual passion.
