Although patriarchal attitudes dominated the minds of the American people during the nineteenth century, Kate Chopin's work encouraged women to consider their situation from a critical point of view, in which women were treated unfairly, unable to fully embrace their feminine ideas and express their desires. By addressing how her female characters cope with various domestic contexts, Chopin shows how they can have a say and exercise agency alongside the consequences of their "rebellion" against social norms. Chopin was able to write short stories as such thanks to his unconventional upbringing and late lifestyle. Before being known as Kate Chopin, she was born as Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri on February 8, 1851 to Thomas and Eliza O'Flaherty. His mother was of French-Creole descent, while his father was originally from Ireland. Unfortunately, her father died in a train accident when she was little and she lived in a nontraditional matriarchal family consisting of her widowed great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. Chopin would later obtain her formal education at the Academy of the Sacred Heart – St. Louis where she “mixed feminine wisdom, rigorous intellectual challenges, domestic chores, and the celebration of women” (Toth, “Unveiling Kate” 15). Chopin was taught to think independently, but also to be acquiescent towards men, so although Chopin grew up surrounded by strong women, it did not prepare her "to fully accept the limitations on women's autonomy that they have traditionally accompanied his wife". However, all of her upbringing and experiences only added to the irony of her happy marriage, just like in her stories. In the nineteenth century, American society promoted the growth of “C...... middle of paper... ...it is clear that she is devoted to their relationship. Works Cited Davis, Sara deSaussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 12: American Realists and Naturalists (1982): 59-71. Literary Resource Center. Storm. November 3, 2013 Kemper, Alison. "Social and Historical Contexts: The Nineteenth Century and the Creole South." Women artists and Chopin's Awakening. 1998: 11-15. Print.Papke, Mary E. “The Social Narrative of Kate Chopin.” On the Edge of the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. 31-88. Print.Seyersted, Per. Introduction. The complete works of Kate Chopin. Ed. For Seyersted. Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press, 1969. 21. Print.Toth, Emily. Presentation of Kate Chopin. Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1999. Print.