later, after Alcée is married, he finds himself stranded by the impending storm, and seeks refuge at the home of Claxita, who is alone and somewhat frightened by the lightning and wind that threatens. Alcée gathers her to his arms and looks down

...into her eyes and there was nothing for him to do but to gather her lips in a kiss. It reminded him of Assumption.

Their passion renewed, with the liberation that the storm provides them from their societal roles, Claxita and Alcée are free to express their love for one another. 

In Kate Chopin’s 1898 short story “The Storm,” the author’s use of nature as a metaphor for human relations and sexual passion is not particularly subtle.  From the start, Chopin used nature as an instrument for conveying sentiments and for providing a context in which her human characters function.  From the perspective of Bobinot, the innocent, well-intentioned husband and father whose betrayal at the hands of his wife will provide the story’s climactic passage, the role of nature is to establish a sense of foreboding.  As Bobinot and his four-year-old son Bibi prepare to depart the local store, the approaching storm establishes the setting:

“. . . somber clouds that were rolling with sinister intention from the west, accompanied by a sullen, threatening roar.”

As Bobinot and Bibi settle down to wait out the storm, Chopin’s use of nature to propel her story and to symbolize human passions takes on an added dimension.  The scene of the story shifts to Bobinot and Calixta, his wife’s, home, where she is dutifully sewing cloth in the quintessential picture of domestic tranquility.  She fails to notice the storm’s approach, but, when it arrives, is quick to go outside to retrieve the laundry hanging on a line.  At this point, the storm’s role in the story goes from one of foreboding to one of repressed sexuality suddenly and forcefully unleashed.  The arrival of Calixta’s former lover, Alcee, provides the opportunity for Chopin to direct a convergence between nature and human desire.  Thunderstorms have frequently been employed as plot devices to suggest disparate moods, from fear and trepidation to passion.  In “The Storm,” the weather serves to break down Calixta’s inhibitions:

“The playing of the lightning was incessant. A bolt struck a tall chinaberry tree at the edge of the field. It filled all visible space with a blinding glare and the crash seemed to invade the very boards they stood upon.”

“Calixta put her hands to her eyes, and with a cry, staggered backward.  Alcée's arm encircled her, and for an instant he drew her close and spasmodically to him.

 "Bonté!"(2)Bonté: Heavens! she cried, releasing herself from his encircling arm and retreating from the wind”

Calixta and Alcee engage in passionate and spontaneous sex, with the moment’s conclusion marked by the storm’s end.  Chopin has used the storm to symbolize the emotional transformations taking place among her human characters.  As the author brings this brief encounter to an end, she notes the dissipation of the torrential rainfall:

“The rain was over; and the sun was turning the glistening green world into a palace of gems. Calixta, on the gallery, watched Alcée ride way.”

Chopin ends her story with Alcee’s letter to his wife, Clarisse, who is away with their children, and who has enjoyed the respite from marriage and the burdens associated with submission to a husband:

“Devoted as she was to her husband, their conjugal life was something which she was more than willing to forego for a while.

 “So the storm passed and everyone was happy.”

The storm in Chopin’s story is a character that moves through the lives of her human characters and influences their conduct.  It serves to keep Bobinot away and to fuel Calixta’s passions.  Absent the storm, it is highly unlikely Alcee would have been inside Bobinot’s home and engaging his wife in a torrent of infidelity.

Many of Kate Chopin's stories show women who find happiness in rather unconventional, and, for the time period that they were written, rather scandalous ways.  In her time period, women were often born and bred to be married, and were expected to be perfectly content in that role.  Chopin, in many of her stories, showed women who were not content, but rather repressed and dissatisfied.  These women often sought freedom or fulfillment through other means.  In "The Storm," the chosen means is through an affair with another man.  And, after the affair, Chopin writes into the story that Calixta is happier, more laid-back, and treats her husband and young son much better.  Because of this, it is logical to conclude that Chopin's purpose was to show that women should seek fulfillment in whatever way they need to, even if it means seeking it outside of marriage.

Calixta's personality lends itself well to this purpose, because she is a bit of an anxious, bored housewife who seeks comfort and distraction in the armes of Alcee.  She seems, at the beginning dissatisfied and tied up on minute details of the day; she is pent up and anxious over the storm and her family, and seeks release with Alcee.  Alcee's personality lends itself well to the purpose because he is a man who is not necessarily content with his marriage, a bit of a loner, and still slightly infatuated with Calixta from earlier times.  He is willing to be with her, even though both of them are still married.  Calixta's husband and on lend themselves well to the story's purpose because they are kind, unsuspecting, and a bit afraid of their mother--this makes them even more surprised and pleased when they come home to find her happy.  All they want to do is make her happy, and this desire to please is something that makes them more susceptible to being content when Calixta is content.

I hope that those thoughts helped a bit; good luck!