Claxita and Edna
...y. She was forced into a marriage with Bobinot because they were of the same social class. Although Bobinot truly loved Calixta, he did not validate her as a woman because she did not want him. Calixta’s affair with Alcee symbolized her awakening. When Alcee arrived to her house, Alcee caught Bobinot and Bibi’s clothes that were about to be blown away by the wind. That symbolized Alcee not wanting to destroy Calixta’s marriage. Their affair symbolized the breaking of social classes and the beginning of womanhood for Calixta. Alcee validated her as a woman. When Bobinot and Bibi returned, Calixta was no longer an unhappy housewife, but a loving mother and cheerful wife. She finally felt like a woman and “everyone was happy.” The parrot in the first chapter is a symbol of Edna’s life. The parrot speaks a language no one understands, repeats “Get out, Get out” (p. 5), and is trapped in a cage. Her husband, Leonce, considered his wife a possession than a person. He is more concerned with his career and keeping up with the upper-class life than showing affection to his wife. This is why Edna rebels. When she first swims, she begins to notice her strength as a woman. After the nap at Madame Antonie’s house, she begins to see the world as fresh and ignores her life as a wife and mother to satisfy herself. The more Edna improves her skills as an artist, the more she rebels from society. The cause of Edna’s death is that she could not follow through with her actions because of her child-like qualities. When she moves out of her house, she does not think of the consequences. Before she drowns, everything she has is gone. She left her husband and children; Robert and Alcee has left her. The Storm has a storybook ending because Calixta married a man who loved her. She is not pressured by society to be a respectable woman and she does not have child-like qualities. Edna was trapped because she married a man who did not care for her. All he did was criticize her for not being a “mother- woman.” Edna’s child-like personality caused her to make irrational decisions, such as moving out of her home and having the affair with the w...