What was Kate Chopin's attitude toward Mrs. Mallard? Did she admire or disdain the way she behaves?

Kate Chopin was a feminist, and she created a sympathetic character in Louise Mallard. Because she is caring wife who feels sorrow for the untimely death of her husband, she cries when she hears the news. She mentally acknowledges that he was only kind to her, though the reader comes to understand she felt oppressed by their marriage. As it begins to dawn on Louise that Brently's death represents freedom for her and offers a...

Kate Chopin was a feminist, and she created a sympathetic character in Louise Mallard. Because she is caring wife who feels sorrow for the untimely death of her husband, she cries when she hears the news. She mentally acknowledges that he was only kind to her, though the reader comes to understand she felt oppressed by their marriage. As it begins to dawn on Louise that Brently's death represents freedom for her and offers a life she can live independently, she rises to her feet with "a feverish triumph in her eyes, and [she] carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory." Chopin lost her husband to malaria when she was thirty-two, and though she had six children to raise on her own, she pursued her writing career. It is conceivable that she might not have done so under different circumstances, and it is arguable that, in creating Louise Mallard, she was in some way speaking to her own experience. It seems unlikely, then, that she would feel disdain for Louise's behavior.