Chopin

In the end of the story it is revealed through a letter from Armand's mother to his father that Armand is actually the one who is half black, and his mother "belongs to the race that is cursed with the brand of slavery". I like to call this justified irony, because he thought he was ridding himself of this shame that no men should ever be ashamed for, but he really just lost his wife, lost his kid, and destroyed his self-image. In essence, he destroyed his own life when he thought he was saving it. Basically, Chopin's outlook on marriage is a dark one... one fueled by conditional love, and man's impossible search for perfection.

She does the same thing with the women in her stories "At the 'Cadian Ball" and "The Storm". Infidelity runs rampant in the story, and neither Clarisse or Calixta appear to show any regret just as we don't see Armand's regret after reading the letter from his mother. Chopin seems to portray her characters as materially superficial, with questionable morales... which had never been a form of writing that rose to popularity before. This could arguably be the precursor to books or even television shows that center around scandal or scandalous behavior.