The author’s use of the word “repression” when describing Mrs. Mallard now hints as foreshadowing and is later supported when it is mentioned no powerful external will would continue to bend hers. Recognizing that this story takes place in a time before now, when a never married woman is afforded the same opportunities as men, further saves the protagonist from being identified as perhaps a thoroughly bad wife. As the reader continues following Mrs. Mallard’s thoughts and emotions, Chopin continues the immediate contrasts. The reader learns in one sentence that Mrs. Mallard recognizes she will weep at the sight of her husband deceased yet the next expresses how she will “open and spread her arms to the years to come”. This event is quickly
