Alright, here is my genuinely honest opinion of the story The Storm: I despised it.
Now, with that out of the way, I can proceed with the blog post!
The ending, to me, was unrealistic. I honestly don't think that there is a person who (no matter how awful or lacking the marriage) could have an affair and not be negatively affected by it in any way--but especially for the way the marriage was depicted in the story.
Personally, I believe that if this situation was real, there are far better ways to solve marital problems than adultery. And with the closing sentence, that seems to be the thought here: that this little fling is what she (or they) needed to go back to their spouse and love that person in a new and better way: to better appreciate their spouse.
I'm not naive in thinking that this type of situation doesn't happen. It happens too often, and my belief is that it's not OK or healthy. The author seems to create this story to say the opposite of that. And I emphasize "seems". I could be reading it in the wrong way. But that is my conclusion.
Yup, it's a love/hate kind of thing. I like your idea about the ending being unrealistic. But can you provide some more detail as to why you thought that? What about the story--the writing, the scene, etc--seemed unrealistic to you?
ReplyDeleteAnd if that's the case, do you think that Chopin meant it to be unrealistic, or was this an artistic misstep? If it wasn't, why might she make this unrealistic.
This is a good post. In the future, though, I'd really like to see you follow through a little more on your interpretations. They're good! But you need to make your case a little more strongly to the reader.
By unrealistic, I am referring to actual real life situations that are similar to this regarding adultery. I have yet to be told of or witness a family go through this kind of thing and everyone tun out "happy" in the end.
ReplyDelete"...and everyone was happy" might have been referring to a moment of happiness immediately after the quick incident. But I truly don't think that it's possible for everyone to be genuinely happy after that kind of circumstance.
Like I said though, that last line is pretty much subject to anyone's interpretation; I suppose that's mine.