As told in her biography, Kate Chopin had a pretty crappy life, disregarding the fact that she lived during a time period when women were suppressed by their male "overlords". Her life was surrounded by death and loss throughout her family. To top it off, her life was not only surrounded by death but she died in the most bogus way your life could end after enduring the struggles she endured, by dying of a cerebral hemorrhage. I think that the deaths in her family had played a key role in her stories. I've only read two of her short stories, but in the both of them the main character, both women, died and when they did they were miserable and died a miserable death. In Desiree's Baby, the main character Desiree lost the love of her husband and took her child and herself and committed murder/suicide. Then there is The Joy that Kills, where the main character Mrs. Mallard thinks her husband is dead and is free from his "tyranny" and upon finding out he isn't, instantly dies of a heart disease.
It seems like these deaths in her stories symbolize more than what people think. It seems like this is a cry for death to come and take her and to end the struggles and stress of her life. Lets recap, it first start with the death of both her sisters that died as babies before she turned five. Being five she might not understand the concept of death but there is still a void left by their presence being gone. After that her father is killed in a horrifying accident when the bridge his train was crossing collapsed. Once again at that age she might not understand the concept of death, but that doesn't overshadow the fact that she has to learn the answer to the question "where is daddy?" and has to find out what happened. She then goes to live with her mom, grandmother, and great-grandmother who are all widows, meaning she lost not only her dad but her grandfather and great-grandfather, whom she probably knows if she knows her grandmother and great-grandfather. She goes on to live a pretty decent life until the Civil War comes along and snatches her away from her best friend Kitty Garesche. Sure it's not as bad as losing her sister's and dad, but nevertheless she has lost someone important in her life, but then her grandmother dies directly before Christmas which should be a happy time of sharing gifts, not mourning over the lost of a family member. Her friend comes back, but then is taken away again because she wants to become a nun and she also loses her brother. She goes on to get married in 1870 and has seven children with her husband, who dies after twelve years of marriage and her last remaining sibling dies sometime before her fifth year of marriage. Once again she has lost someone important in her life and is left with the responsibility of raising seven kids. Finally after two years of being on her own she moves back in with her mom, who dies the following year leaving her by herself to raise her children again. That's nine deaths, ten if you count the death of her friendship with Kitty, over a 30-year period. That might not seem like much during given the time interval but it is when the people who died are the individuals who were close and dear to you.
On top of the deaths and the seven children she had to raise on her own she has her book career that doesn't go very far because she is silenced by a society that doesn't yet value the women as they should. It seems that these stories she wrote provide release for her tortured soul as the women of the stories tortured souls are released from the indignity society has bestowed upon them and the misery they faced in their daily lives. But its through death which makes one wonder, is it death that she hopes to escape her life and release her tortured soul?