egarding the storm, "She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm." Calixta is "greatly occupied" with household chores as she is sewing furiously as the storm approaches.
In many ways, both Calixta and Hester are prevented from being with Alcee and Dimmesdale respectively because of social pressure put upon women. A half century after Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, Chopin wrote "The Storm" in 1898, a time when women were still controlled by men and were limited in freedom and expression. Stein (363) writes that Calixta succumbs to the "pervasive social pressure and struggles to avoid the stigma of inferiority and demerit." All of Calixta's repressed emotions and desire come to the surface during the storm that is literal and emotional as she gives in to her passion for Alcee. Similarly, Hester Prynne was married early to a much older and controlling man. Dimmesdale's contrasting and tender treatment of her also causes her repressed desires to express themselves in action.
If the storm is a symbol of the passion and desire that lurk beneath the surface of Calixta confined to her roles as mother and wife in "The Storm," then in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the rosebush that stands outside the prison represents Scarlet's natural desire to be wild. As the rosebush is situated beside the prison, so Hester is situated in the midst of a patriarchal and unforgiving Puritan society. In contrast to the harshness of Puritan morality, Hester will come to symbolize grace and forgiveness as the rosebud serves as "a sweet moral blossom that may be found along the track or relive the darkening close of tale of human frailty and sorrow" (Hawthorne 46). The oppression of women in Puritan society is not natural, which the story demonstrates by showing Hester's husband Chillingworth to be less redeemable than Hester or Arthur. Porte (377) maintains the rosebush symbolizes Hester's true nature,...