The Story of an Hour," by Kate Chopin, is set in very limited confines. The events occur primarily in a room, on a staircase, and at a front door. How does this limitation help to express the themes of the story?

The limited setting seems to echo the limitations imposed by the institution of marriage on Louise Mallard. The narrator says that Louise's face has lines that "bespoke repression and even a certain strength." It seems that the repression referred to here can be traced back to life with her husband because, when she has had some time to process the news of her husband's death, she says, over and over, "'free, free, free!'" With him dead and gone, or so she thinks, Louise Mallard feels that she has become free.
Later, the narrator says, "There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself." The implication, here, is that, when her husband was alive, Louise did not get to make her own choices. Her freedom was limited, as limited as the very setting of the story. Despite the fact that she knows that he loved her, she cannot help but look forward to the "long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely." Louise recognizes all the freedom she will have without a husband to rule her in marriage; however, when Brently Mallard walks through the door, Louise experiences the terrible loss of this potential freedom, symbolized, perhaps, by the fact that she never leaves the house during the story.