rief performance downstairs. She faces the open window filling her mind with fantasies of freedom. The open window symbolizes her new beginning. "There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul" (550).
             While still sitting, Mrs. Mallard notices her outside surroundings and realizes it is springtime. The spring life she sees symbolizes Mrs. Mallard's newly found freedom. Also, the rain, the peddler, the distant song, and the twittering of sparrows all symbolize the spring, meaning that Mrs. Mallard's freedom arrives with the spring--giving spring a double meaning.
             Another irony occurs as Mrs. Mallard enjoys nature in peace when a feeling of death descends on her. She is not sure at first, but once she starts feeling it "creep out of the sky," she recognizes the feeling to be her transcendence to a higher form of being. The same sounds, scents, and colors
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