Prisons come in all shapes and sizes, some have no walls or locks. This is evident in Kate Chopin's short stories, "Desiree's Baby," "The Story of an Hour," and "The Tempest," in which all of Chopin's major female characters are imprisoned by their role as wife and all that implies during the 19th century. .Kate Chopin, whose name was Catherine O'Flaherty, was born on July 12, 1850 in St. Louis. His father Thomas O' Flaherty had only been in the United States since 1823 and in 1825 moved to St. Louis. Over time he became a very rich merchant. He subsequently married his first wife in 1839, who died after giving birth and subsequently married Kate's mother in 1844. Kate's father died suddenly in 1855 when she was only five years old forcing her to rethink everything she knew. On June 9, 1870 she married a man named Oscar Chopin and later moved to New Orleans, they had their first child Jean Chopin in 1871. Their last child was born in 1879. In later years she faced a family tragedy with the death of her husband Oscar In December 1882, due to swamp fever, she moved her family to St. Louis to live closer to her mother and began writing to support herself and her children. Chopin wrote during the Victorian period based on social mores and monetary stature. His mother died in June 1885. Chopin followed in August 1904 when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. As a woman growing up in the 19th century, she was well aware of the limitations and restrictions of women. In “The Story of an Hour” Mrs. Mallard's name begins our symbolism of captivity. The mallard is a wild animal that must not be tamed and often kept in cages. This is how Mrs. Mallard feels trapped by her husband, held in the middle of paper...'.” Facts on File Companion to the American Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin=CASS782 &SingleRecord=True (accessed November 8, 2011). Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. The Declaration of Seneca Falls (1848). Project Gutenberg, and eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Network. November 9, 2011.Skaggs, Peggy. “Kate Chopin”. Ed David J. Nordloh. Twayne Publishers 1985MAYER, GARY H. "A Question of Behavior: A Semantic Analysis of Five Kate Chopin Stories." ETC: A review of general semantics 67.1 (2010): 94-100. Premier of academic research. Network. November 9, 2011.Brown, Gillian. Domestic Individualism: Imagining the Self in Nineteenth-Century America. University of California Press, 1990. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Network. November 9. 2011.