Romance is defined as a love affair, a feeling of excitement, and mystery when meeting a new person. Many times romance is associated with love, other times it is a quick affair. Romantic comedies on TV, movies, and popular fiction always depict romance in a specific way. There is the theme of idealization of another. There is the theme of soul mates, one and only one. There is the theme of love at first sight. Of course there is always the theme that love conquers all. Kate Chopin, Earnest Hemingway, Edna St.Vincent Millay, and Dorothy Parker redirect our thoughts to dimensions, and possibilities which are not seen on screen, or in most popular fiction. Two pieces of literature have been chosen to show this. One short story by Kate Chopin, and one poem by Edna St.Vincent Millay. In the story "The Storm" by Kate Chopin, it tells of a sexual affair that happens between a woman named Calixta, and a man named Alcee Laballiere.
A storm was forming, and Calixta was out on her porch collecting clothes that were hanging. Alcee rode in on his horse, and asked to take refugee from the storm. Both of them had known each other from the past before their marriages. They had been enchanted with each other at an event called the Assumption, and had kissed over and over. Calixta's husband Bibinot, and their son Bibi were in town. They walked there, so it was known that they would stay till after the storm. Alcee's wife Clarrise, and their children were away on vacation. Now with the storm beating wildly outside, Calixta, and Alcee, let their passions take over. "He pushed her hair back from her face that was warm and steaming. Her lips were as red and moist as pomegranate seed. Her white neck and a glimpse of her full, firm bosom disturbed him powerfully. As she glanced up at him the fear in her liquid blue eyes had given place to a drowsy gleam that unconsciously betrayed a sensuous desire. He looked down into her eyes and there was nothing for him to do but gather her lips in a kiss. It reminded him of Assumption"(Kriszner&Mandell,271). As the storm settled down, they put themselves together, and Alcee rode off smiling at her. Calixta raised her chin at him and laughed. Later Bibinot, and Bibi came home from town. Calixta grabs Bibi, and kisses him intensely. She tells both of them that she was so worried. Bibinot gives her the shrimp he bought in town for her, ans she tells him how good he is to her. They sit and eat their dinner, and laugh, and are so happy together. Alcee goes home, and writes his wife a loving letter telling her to stay with the children a month longer. He writes her that their happiness was of the most importance to him. Clarisse receives the letter, and is happy to stay a month longer. Kate Chopin is showing a liberated thought process for women. Calixta did not feel guilty or distressed by the affair. She enjoyed the affair as much as Alcee. Their romance began at the Assumption long before. Perhaps like the word assumption, they always possessed each other. If both of them ever found themselves alone, it would happen again. Two married people having a passionate sexual encounter and ending with everyone being happy, and remaining with their partners, isn't seen on screen, or read in popular fiction. In the poem "What lips my lips have kissed" by Edna St.Vincent Millay,
