In “The Storm,” Kate Chopin presents the affair between Calixta and Alcee as somehow right, even though both of them are already married. Apparently neither Calixta nor Alcee are happy in their marriages, nor do they appear to be satisfied with the physical nature of their relationships. Yet they were once in love with each other, and perhaps they still are, for their passion reasserts itself on that stormy day.

Calixta appears to Alcee to be much freer and more accessible than she was as a younger woman. At that time, Alcee's honor had prevented him from approaching her sexually, but now she is an experienced woman. He seems to forget or does not care that she is married, and so is he, and he discovers the “depths of his own sensuous nature” that have not been touched before.

Calixta, for her part, responds to Alcee at once. Her passion soars “like a white flame,” and for the first time, she feels like her body knows “its birthright.” Apparently, relations with her husband have not satisfied her like this affair with Alcee, with whom she seems to mesh perfectly.

Chopin, then, suggests that this affair, even though it involves infidelity to two marriages, is somehow what Calixta and Alcee need to be happy and fulfilled in this part of their lives.