30 pages • 1 hour read
Kate ChopinAt the ’Cadian Ball
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1892A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Calixta
Perhaps the most dynamic of the four main characters, Calixta undergoes a significant internal change by the close of the story. She is widely regarded as the most beautiful, sought-after girl in the region. “But the belle was Calixta” (184), the narrator observes, describing how she stands out from the rest of the girls, not only because of her clothes and material possessions but because of her personality.
The narrator remarks: “Animation! And abandon! Such flashes of wit!” (184). The physical description of Calixta portrays her as a “vixen” with a “full figure; that voice like a rich contralto song, with cadences in it that must have been taught by Satan” (179). Calixta exudes desirability and sensuousness. She wants physical intimacy from her suitors and is not held back by societal expectations when it comes to receiving and enjoying such affection. Early on, it is revealed that Calixta had previously been involved in a scandal involving a lover. In this, Calixta embodies a more modern, feminist spirit compared to other ladies of her time.
Chopin strategically uses Calixta as her feminist heroine to publish daring content about women and sexuality. By creatively intertwining “local color” in the description of her characters and setting, Chopin can maintain an outsider approach much like an anthropologist as she describes the intimacies of her female characters. When Calixta is ultimately dropped by Alcée for Clarisse, she takes matters into her own hands and proposes marriage to Bobinôt. Calixta changes from a passionate “vixen” to a realistic, resourceful young woman in need of a husband.
Alcée
As much as Alcée Laballière drives the plot forward, his character remains more or less static until the very last moment. Bobinôt would not have attended the ball if it weren’t for the news that Calixta would be there. Of course, Alcée and Calixta would have never engaged in their tryst, and Clarisse would not have followed him to the ball if he had stayed home. In short, four separate characters owe their marriages to Alcée’s drunken decision to find himself a female companion.
Alcée is responsible for all of the major developments in the plot, yet he remains unchanged throughout the story until the final paragraph. Even “The Storm,” the sequel to “At the ’Cadian Ball,” reveals how little Alcée changes his ways, as he allows his sexual attractions and desires to dictate his actions.
Clarisse is Alcée’s marriage interest from the start, even though he is drawn to Calixta physically. He knows what he wants: Clarisse as his wife, and a successful farm. He has the support of a wealthy family and the privilege of being able to achieve his goals. The combination of the cyclone and Clarisse’s rejection wounds Alcée’s pride, but nothing more.
He was never going to settle for Calixta, which becomes obvious when Alcée thinks “an hour ago [he] was kissing little Calixta’s ear and whispering nonsense into it. Calixta was like a myth now” (188). Alcée acknowledges that Clarisse is his “one, only, great reality in the world” (188) after she confesses her love for him, suggesting that Alcée’s priorities will now shift to accommodate Clarisse first and his sexual passions second—for the time being, anyway.
Bobinôt
What Bobinôt lacks in self-respect, he makes up for in loyalty to his heart’s desire, Calixta. He is utterly obsessed with her. Aside from being described as a “big, brown, good-natured” (179) sugarcane farmer, as well as “dull-looking and clumsy” (184), Bobinôt serves no purpose other than to be Calixta’s much less glamorous fallback marriage option.
While the other characters' actions drive the plot forward leading to change, some more than others, Bobinôt remains static. He only changes his mind about going to the party when he learns that Alcée will be in attendance, and he wants to stop any potential relations between Alcée and Calixta. He has no plans of pursuing Calixta himself. He observes of Alcée that he is “looking rather feverish” at the women attending the ball (184), and yet Bobinôt does nothing to stop Calixta and Alcée’s rendezvous.
Calixta criticizes Bobinôt for standing still when he should be dancing, comparing him to a cow. Instead of defending his honor, Bobinôt laughs along with the other partygoers at his own expense. While walking Calixta home, it is Calixta who decides the two will wed, not Bobinôt, and when Calixta makes this decision, Bobinôt is so stunned that he says nothing. Bobinôt does not win over Calixta’s heart. Rather, he just happens to be in the right time and place.
Clarisse
Presented as a foil to Calixta, Clarisse represents propriety and morality as a higher-status society woman. Fair and reserved, Clarisse appears to be dainty and graceful, but she holds firm to her boundaries, as Alcée discovers when he makes physical advances toward her. The narrator says, “No man had ever spoken love to her like that” (181), indicating Clarisse’s innocence and lack of experience regarding intimacy.
She speaks in French more frequently than the other characters, and her speech is more refined and grammatically correct. She believes she and Alcée are above attending something such as the ’Cadian ball, exclaiming, “Humph! Par exemple! Nice conduc’ for a Laballière” (183). Instead of looking for Alcée herself, Clarisse initially sends in a Black man on her behalf, indicating again that she feels the party is beneath her social standing.
Alcée is a wealthy farmer and a good match for Clarisse, even though he does not conduct himself in the same way as Clarisse’s male visitors, who are “swaying of fans like women, and dandling about hammocks” (181). Clarisse softens to Alcée after the cyclone destroys his rice crop and he shows a more vulnerable side of himself. While Calixta willingly throws herself into Alcée’s arms, Clarisse demurely waits to confess her love to Alcée until she believes she might lose him to another woman. This demonstrates how Clarisse prioritizes decorum and societal expectations above all else.
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By Kate Chopin
