When a storm hits, it reaches a sudden climax and disappears into oblivion. In The Storm, a short story by Kate Chopin, an adulterous affair occurs during a storm between Calixta, mother of Bibi and wife of Bobinot, and Alcee, husband of Clarisse. A parallel is drawn between the storm and the emotional storm in a woman's life. This storm generates a storm for readers: each character is ultimately happy, indicating that adultery does not lead to bad consequences. From the reader's point of view, this storm should have social consequences, but instead it causes a rupture in the structure. Theorist Jacques Derrida argues in his new Structure, Sign & Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences that all structure is arbitrary and is capable of epistemic change. He criticizes the theory that logocentrism is socially constructed and that a structure could either become restrictive or totalized, or open up, allowing free play. The presence of this storm is not a coincidence - Chopin develops the relationship between both using symbolism to illustrate the feelings in a relationship as unpredictable as the raging storm. Chopin highlights a rupture that impacts the reader's view of the repression of women and how a 19th-century marriage could be limiting for a woman - both sexually and spiritually. They were considered innocent; always faithful to her husband and whose only function was to act as wife and mother. In this episteme, women were expected to behave properly and sexual desire was not even considered. When it came to men alone, women supposedly lacked passion and desire. Men who gave in to the temptation of a woman were considered lower class. If you can resist this desire, you will be more successful in both the private and public spheres. The Storm challenges the structure of the 19th century sex/gender system by introducing a sympathetic character, Calixta, whose actions decenter and undermine patriarchy and socially constructed femininity. The Storm suggests that there is no longer a transcendental perspective on sex and gender, and that sex and gender are both constructed by the culture of society. Not only does the story illustrate the idea of ​​"passionless" women and the fact that women do in fact have strong sexual desires, it glorifies them, demonstrating the wide range of free play within the system. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The center of a structure regulates the entire structure. According to Derrida, Western philosophy was logo-centered: it places at its center a logo that organizes and explains the world for us, while remaining outside of it (Tyson 242). Although a structure may change over time, the center remains the same. Derrida believed that there are different ways of defining it and that everything can become “discourse”. A center can lead to “full presence”, or totalization, or to free play. Totalization means that a structure has a defined definition and any change and transformation of elements within a structure is prohibited. On the other hand, free play is a disruption of presence. This means that the meaning of the words we use every day is always open and never fixed. Derrida believed that there should be flexibility within a system - no matter how adequate the laws are, there will always be another perspective and that one can never completely escape the "perhaps" (Derrida 925). “The coherence ofsystem, the center of a structure allows the free play of its elements within the total form…the center also closes the free play which it opens and makes possible” (Derrida 915). In this specific episteme of late 19th century America, the center of the sex/gender system was patriarchy. Economic and social changes followed the Revolutionary War, which led Americans to rely on the family as a source of social stability. As a result, unique roles were assigned to men and women (D'Emilio & Freedman 56). The patriarchal model included distinct sexual spheres: husbands left the house to seek their fortunes in the public sphere, while wives remained in the private sphere to perform unpaid household and reproductive tasks (D'Emilio & Freedman 57). Women were seen very differently from men in terms of status and nature. The distinct perceptions of men and women are called patriarchal binary thinking. Patriarchal binary thinking is a term for opposite poles – we understand each of them by their opposition to one another. Derrida concluded that these oppositions also included small hierarchies – each pair had one that was more superior or privileged than the other (Tyson 240). Men were superior to women, both in the public and private sphere. During this time, stereotypical women were seen as passive, domestic, and dependent on men. On the other hand, men were dominant, controlling and independent. Women were not allowed to own property and were seen as the property of men – first for their fathers, then for their husbands. As the text demonstrates, Calixta goes about her usual “womanly” tasks, unaware that a storm is approaching. “She was sitting by a side window and sewing furiously on a sewing machine. She was very busy and did not notice the storm approaching. But she was very hot and often stopped to wipe her face from which the perspiration was beading” (Chopin 558). Although Calixta doesn't seem unhappy with her role, it illustrates that the role was beginning to consume her. She was distracted by conforming to the 19th century gender roles constructed for her. Nothing is “natural”, not even sexual identity. Society has this idea of ​​biological essentialism, which states that there is an innate inferiority of women based on the biological differences between the sexes that are considered part of our unchanging essence as men and women. However, Judith Butler, an American philosopher and gender theorist, argued that gender is socially constructed: women are not born feminine and men are not born masculine. These gender “categories” are rather constructed by each person’s society (Tyson 82). This indicates that it is possible that there is a difference between "sex" as an anatomical difference between male and female bodies, and "gender" as meanings attached to bodily differences, also known as of gender identity. Judith Butler, in her short story Gender Trouble, illustrates how the culture of a society is centered on the idea of ​​recognizing the body as a strict binary opposition between man and woman, according to which one is either "naturally man", or “naturally female”: The little boy learns that his cries are not masculine; he must grow in his masculinity by imitating the behavior designated as “masculine” to the point that such behavior becomes “second nature”. The little girl learns that certain ways of acting make her a tomboy and she is encouraged to dress femininely. (Butler 2486) This quote demonstrates the idea of ​​a patriarchal center,and if a person does not fit into a category, extreme pressure would consume their life. The idea of ​​strict binary oppositions that dominates a person's political and social life. Butler believed that the categories should be relaxed, relaxing on the fixation of gender identity. In doing so, we would be participating in Derrida's concept of free play within the system. We would “destabilize naturalized categories of identity and desire” – not to obey imposed morality, but to be responsible and construct our own vision of sex and gender within society (Butler 2487). The storm illustrates gender conformity when Bibi and Bobinot are in town buying shrimp during the storm. When the store started to rumble, Bibi tried to act strong and tell his father that he was not afraid. Today, it is normal for a four-year-old boy to be afraid when a storm approaches, Bibi conformed to the gender categories imposed on him at the time due to his biological sex. The Storm illustrates a segregation of wealth between Calixta and Alcee. They were unable to marry because they were from two different racial classes, which is why Calixta married Bobinot. It was a marriage of convenience because women were told to accept what they were offered. In public and private life, women were submissive to their husbands. Women did not have the option of looking for something better, since their only goal was to please their husbands. Within a marriage, the sole purpose of sexual intercourse was reproduction. Couples were able to achieve sexual harmony and for others it simply caused stress because of the different meanings it had for both of them. Some husbands and wives even slept in separate beds to avoid temptation. Giving in to one's desire was "unnatural" and if men had sex with women, they would be deprived of their physical power (D'Emilio & Freedman 69). A couple's economic success determined the success of a marriage compared to a romantic partnership. Additionally, there was a difference between the upper class and the working class. There was an idea of ​​the self-made man: men had to control their sexual appetite to succeed. If you were upper class, that meant you had to train yourself to channel your desires, because masturbation and sexual intercourse could destroy both the body and the mind. gain, a demonstration of how the sex/gender system has centered the patriarchal model. Chopin illustrates how Alcee, an upper-class man, could not control his sexual desires. In The Storm, Alcee began to have a bigger problem, as he examined how morality affected him personally, not how it affected society: his lips were as red and wet as a pomegranate seed. Her white neck and the glimpse of her full, firm chest disturbed him greatly. As she looked at him, the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given way to a sleepy gleam that unconsciously betrayed sensual desire. He looked into her eyes and there was nothing to do but bring his lips together in a kiss. (Chopin 559) As Alcée was of the upper class, he was praised for giving up his sexual desire, as it would allow him to be even more successful in life. However, he gave in to temptation and felt like he had “no choice.” In those days, everyone was taught that a wife had to please her husband – sex was at the top of the chore list, along with washing dishes and having children. Not only does this storm destroy the characters' possessions, but it also destroys trust and faithon which marriages are based, causing a breakdown in the structure. This quote decenters the naturalized masculine/patriarchal model where men hold all the power, but also undermines socially constructed femininity while realizing that women can have desires just like men. Women were considered the property of men: if they were damaged, they would no longer have value. If a woman had sex with anyone other than her husband, her value would decrease. As 19th century women had to depend on men for stability, they chose not to engage in such acts. As a result, women were said to be passionless. Some of these women believed that since men should control their sexual appetite and should not engage in it as well, it made them more equal to them. However, equality was not respected. The only passion women believed they felt was the love of home, children and the domestic chores they had. A woman's desire must remain dormant, to be awakened, perhaps, by her husband (D'Emilio & Freedman 70). As Nancy Cott demonstrates in Passionless, "If women were to act modestly and sexually passive, and also act without affectation, then, logically, they should be passionless." »(Cot 226). This plays into how people viewed women based on how they acted – based on how they conformed to their gender categories. The Storm does not focus on the adultery committed between Calixta and Alcee as a crime, but rather on the bond between the two. Chopin strives to emphasize what happens to women – and men – when the sex/gender system marginalizes them by misrepresenting and misunderstood that women are passionless. Just as the storm surprises both characters, the emotional storm of sexual fulfillment surprises Calixta. Once it passes, that's when she realizes this excitement, this orgasm that has happened. She states that it is discomfort that causes her to loosen her collar, which may indicate that she is talking about the sensation caused by orgasm, as well as discomfort resulting from her married life. We imagine that Calixta and Bobinot only have a sexual relationship for the purposes of procreation, or otherwise procreation, within the framework of social norms. At the beginning of the story, it is said that Bobinot is a child, which allows us to assume that Bobinot is not a gifted lover. Anne Koedt, author of The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm, said: “What we need to do is refine our sexuality. We must abandon “normal” conceptions of sex and create new guidelines that take into account mutual sexual pleasure” (Koedt 1). This means that women should be able to feel passion and desire and enjoy the same fulfillment as men. When Calixta is with Alcee, sex and desire come together: instead of having sex for procreation, they have sex in a more interesting way, stimulating her clitoris. Chopin refers to the end of the storm and the end of the climax: “They paid no attention to the surging torrents, and the roar of the elements made her laugh as she lay in his arms” (Chopin 559 ). By describing the storm during the affair, Chopin symbolizes that their passion matches the intensity of the storm. There is irony in this part of the story because Chopin continues to remind the reader that the storm is frightening and destructive, but in the end, this fear eventually disappears and is replaced entirely by desire. Bibi and Bobinot come home with the shrimp, and Calixta.