In Kate Chopin's story "The Storm," explain the last line: "So the storm passed, and everyone was happy." If you assume she is being ironic, point...

A very strong case can be made that the final sentence of
Kate Chopin’s short story “The Storm” is ironic and that it is simply the final example
of many moments in the story that can be read ironically.  The possible ironies in the
story become especially apparent when it is read for the second time.  Here are a
few:

• Young Bibi assumes that his
  mother will be afraid of the storm. Instead, she uses the storm as an occasion to commit
  adultery. Bibi’s touching concern for his mother therefore seems a bit
  ironic.


• Bobinôt tells his son that Calixta will shut the
  house in response to the storm. Instead, she opens up her
  bedroom.


• Bobinôt purchases a can of shrimp for his wife,
  thereby showing his (ironic) concern for the woman who is about to cheat on
  him.


• Calixta is not concerned about the safety of her
  husband and son, although we have just seen them (ironically) expressing great concern
  for her safety.


• Alcée grabs, of all things, Bobinôt’s
  “trousers” off the clothes line when the storm begins.  (Hmmmm . . . ironically
  symbolic?)


• There may be some irony in the description of
  Alcée helping Calixta keep the water from coming inside beneath the
  door.


• The “white” color of Calixta’s bed may be ironic,
  especially since white is a common symbol of purity and particularly in light of how the
  bed is about to be used.


• Her young son’s bed is right
  next to the bed in which his mother commits adultery.


• As
  Bobinôt and Bibi approach the house, Bobinôt worries that they are too badly stained to
  be worthy of Calixta’s sight:

readability="9">

"My! Bibi, w'at will yo' mama say! You ought to
be ashame'. You oughta' put on those good pants. Look at 'em! An' that mud on yo'
collar! How you got that mud on yo' collar, Bibi? I never saw such a
boy!"

• Calixta, who
  has arguably just behaved in a highly unscrupulous way, is described as an
  “over-scrupulous housewife.”


• Calixta arguably lies when
  she tells her husband that she was “uneasy” about his
  absence.


• The reunited family laugh so loudly that their
  laughter might even, the narrator says, be heard (ironically) at Alcée’s
  place.


• Practically every single sentence of the final two
  sections is arguably ironic.