On the other hand, her soul is exhausted in two ways: first, she is terribly sad - at first- about her husband's death, but at the same time her soul is exhausted from all those years of sacrifice and of being tied up to her husband's will.
This feeling of exhaustion of her soul changes when she opens the window. Through the window, she sees some trees "that were all aquiver with the new spring life", she can breathe the rain and hear a peddler cry, the melody of a song and the twitter of some sparrows. It contrasts with the sadness and gloom existing in her house and, at first, in her room. A second reading of this paragraph makes clear the idea of life coming from outside to Louise's room. After breathing this new "draught of life" coming from outside, she realizes she is free, which makes her soul not be exhausted any more, and this also reaches her body.
In this story, there are some obvious contrasts between life and death. The main one is found in the contrast between her house and the world outside. In her house, everything shows death: her sister and her husband's friend, the house and, over all, her room, where there is a "roomy chair". This contrasts with the life existing outside, which she gets by opening the window and invades her with new life, which only gets her room (Louise) and not the whole house (Josephine and Richards). Therefore, while she feels happy, the rest of the house is mourning. Another contrast is found in Louise's feelings, shown in sentences like "storm of grief"- shared with the rest of the house-, in relation with the "blue skies" and the rest of things that are perceived through the window only by Louise. Death is also represented by the past. It's clear in the paragraph in which Louise knows she will cry again when seeing her husband death. Although she loved him - sometimes- , her husband also represents her lack of freedom, will, and self-assertion; that is, the death of all these things.
