One possible theme is finding happiness and fulfillment through unconventional means. The main character is a woman who finds incredible gratification in an elicit affair with an old acquaintance. Chopin seems to be indicating that freedom and happiness can be found outside of regular moral conventions of the time. Calixta, who commits the affair, seems perfectly happy, rejoicing, and almost giddy afterwards, treating her husband and son with unusual kindness and levity. So, even though Calixta seemed to love her husband, and had a husband who, by all outward signs, loved his wife, she still found even more fulfillment through satisfying her sexual desires with another man. Chopin's stories often have this theme of women finding happiness in unconventional ways; take "The Story of an Hour" for example, where the main character, a housewife, is ecstatically happy at the freedom that her husband's death gives her. This theme is seen through "The Storm" as a woman, after surrendering to an affair-which was scandalous and wrong in her society-actually seemed to gain quite a bit of happiness from it.
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