Relationships In Rip Van Winkle And The Storm By Kate Chopin

The relationships that some of the characters in the short stories have with their significant others is something that I had a hard time grasping when reading them. Perhaps it is because parents who were raised in the era of mutual trust and belonging in a spousal relationship raised me, but I also think I believe this because it is simply the normal standard for today’s society. This standard is, of course, mutual respect for the spouse. The characters in the short stories â€Å"Rip Van Winkle† by Washington Irving and â€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin do not sit well with me because they portray the types of relationships that I was not brought up to believe in. However, given the circumstances of the short stories, I can see why the female†¦show more content†¦This left their children looking â€Å"ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody† (Irving 628). All Dame Winkle had wanted was a little help from the man she married. It would not have been hard for Rip to simply get over himself and give her a helping hand, something that I was brought up to believe was the normal standard. This relationship does not hold true to my morals, especially since upon hearing that Dame Winkle passed, Rip felt â€Å"a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence† (Irving 636). This man was so happy that he no longer had to deal with his wife, someone who was simply trying to make her already stressful life a little bit easier to live. I know that there are relationships like this that still exist to this day, but they are not the kind of relationships that I support. It is not based on mutual trust and belonging because there is no possible way Dame Winkle felt like she belonged in Rip Van Winkle’s world. The second story that left me irked the first time I read it was â€Å"The Storm† by Kate Chopin. When the story started off with Bobinà ´t, a loving husband, purchasing a â€Å"can of shrimps, of which Cali xta was very fond† (Chopin 238), I believed this short story would uphold my beliefs and the following paragraphs followed suit. I had felt so compassionate for Calixta, who was so worried about â€Å"Bobinà ´t with Bibi out in that storm† (Chopin 241), that I paid no attention to Alceà © until it was