Another ironic feminist literature piece where the wife finds peace when the husband is not there to control her life. However, there was no sexism involved in this short story. We have to take into consideration that when this was written, it was the norm that the husband would be telling his wife what to do all the time. Kate Chopin made a clever trick into sneaking feminism by showing us how limited women are without us even noticing. To the naked eye, the story reads as if the wife died of how happy she was to finally approach death, but if you dig a little deeper you'll realize that the joy she receives isn't from the sweet release of death. Instead, it's the sweet release from her husband. 

     Chopin sneaks this message through her story because she doesn't even make it so that the protagonist was happy for her husband's death.  She shows the woman mourning at the begging, it was not until halfway into the story where the woman realizes all the benefits she is granted by not having a husband. It was not that she did not care for her husband, it was that she desired the freedom to do whatever she wants as a human being more than her husband's life. It's almost a passive aggressive comment towards men's control over their lovers back in 1890's, but in short story form. At the end  of the story, the woman officially dies because she realized her husband wasn't actually dead, meaning that all the freedom she just fantasized about was all a lie as well. Having such a weak heart, she died from the shock of going back to the woman she was before the false news of her husband's death.