This novel is set in the United States around the mid to late 1800's. At that time, women were not able to work, get an education, or even have the freedom to use contraception as they do today in America. America was a male-dominated society at that time. Chopin mainly portrays Mrs. Mallard's internal conflict and brief moment of liberation, It suggests that she was indeed ahead of her time. If I were to go by Mrs.Mallard's inner world, I would say she was strong, but in the context of the time, I think she was vulnerable, as can be seen in this snippet from the novel"as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been.
In my opinion, Mrs. Mallard demonstrates independence and courage by daring to envision a life of her own, For example, in these passages of the novel. "She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life." The delicious breath of rain was in the air." "The note of a distant song which someone was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves." It shows that it is not her husband she remembers when she looks out the window, but the freedom in her heart that is awakened, and she experiences the happiness that freedom brings.