Adultery in The Lady with The Pet Dog and The Storm

Infidelity is depicted as an extremely negative thing in the United States, and is often blamed for trust issues, psychologically damaging the spouse and their children, tearing apart marriages and families and more. People who commit adultery are often shamed and told how wrong what they did is and what a terrible person they are for doing it. According to the Journal of Martial and Family by the Associated Press, however, 41% of â€Å"marriages where one or both spouses admit to infidelity, either physical or emotional.† Clearly, while infidelity is generally viewed negative by society, many people either decide that it is not as negative as it is portrayed, or do not care and do it anyway. â€Å"The Lady with the Pet Dog† and â€Å"The Storm† both go†¦show more content†¦While it is not unheard of now to file a divorce from your spouse and begin a relationship with the person whom you cheated with, sometimes resulting in marriage and a family, this st ory was written in 1899. During that time period, divorce was a very taboo and uncommon thing to do, so Dmitri and Anna could not simply leave their spouse to be with each other. In â€Å"The Storm†, Chopin uses a unique approach through a third person point-of-view as the narrator, which allows us to experience and identify with exactly what each of the five characters felt after the storm had passed. Sometimes, she is unclear and we are unsure whose point of view the portion of the passage is coming from, such as the following: â€Å"Oh! she remembered; for in Assumption he had kissed her and kissed and kissed her; until his senses would well nigh fail, and to save her he would resort to a desperate flight. If she was not an immaculate dove in those days, she was still inviolate; a passionate creature whose very defenselessness had made her defense, against which his honor forbade him to prevail. Now – well, now – her lips seemed in a manner free to be tasted, as well as her round, white throat and her whiter breasts.† In this case, it is unclear whether this is from the perspective of Calixta or Alcee, and we hear from both of t hem in another paragraph prior. Chopin’s use this perspective allows the reader to not only gain insight and perspective from each