s and never regrets the fact that she never married. However, when forced to look after her neighbor's children, she is rendered clueless as she "determine(s) upon a line of action which should be identical with a line of duty" (Seyersted 376). Ultimately, Aurelie survives the babysitting experience and realizes that her life is "empty as never before" (Skaggs 94). Sobbing out tears that fell into the abyss of nothingness that surrounded her, she "come(s) to experience the suffering and loneliness...of (her) freedom" (Bender 78).
             Portraying an inverse of Aurelie's incident, "The Story of an Hour" depicts the shackles of marriage as opposed to the wings of independence. Louise Mallard characterizes the ideal and devoted wife of the time. However, when she learns that her husband has died in a train accident, Mrs. Mallard faces "a confrontation with her essential self" (Inge 103). She locks herself in the confinements of her room and curiously peers out her window at the vivacious and fascinating world below. Whispering "Free! Body and soul free!" Louise begins to conceive the release that her husband's death has given her (Seyersted 354). She abandons her grief and prepares herself to live a life of her own just as her husband appears at the front door exclaiming his lone survival. Struck with stupefaction, Louise's "fleeting moments of ecstatic freedom" escape from her clutches as life escapes from her body (Bender 77).
             To convey the inner turmoil and reveal the inner core of the characters in all three stories, Chopin incorporates setting as a key device. Being a southern woman, she chose to write what was closest to her. Thus, all three stories are set in the south. With personal tensions paralleling the tension of the country in the antebellum south, "Desiree's Baby" and "Regret" occur in the swampy bay...