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How does Chopin use setting in  her story to reveal character, theme, and plot?

The setting of the story shifts from the public area of the house to the bedroom. Once inside her room, "Mrs. Mallard' becomes "Louise,' a significant detail that contrasts her role as wife with her real personal identity. Sitting in her room, she experiences an emotional upheaval that culminates in truth: She feels free because she is out of her marriage, and she looks forward to the rest of her life. As this part of the plot is developed, Louise looks out her window and sees/hears the signs of spring. Thematically, this parallels her own emotional rebirth. When she leaves her room to go downstairs, however, she discovers her husband is alive, and she is thrust back into her married state. This reality is more than she can bear. She dies.

Very well said, mshurn. Inside the bedroom, she is restricted to her subservient role as wife. The other rooms of the house serve as a passageway to the great outdoors, where she can see freedom and the beginning of a new life. She exits the bedroom, enters the outer rooms and when the door opens, the outside world is within view. Unfortunately, her husband blocks her way once more. 

It is important to note that she goes down the stairs as her husband returns. There is an implication that she is descending to her demise, and maybe this is her pathway as penance for wishing her husband dead.

 There was a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs. Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.