The first moment I begin to feel as though the story changes unexpectedly is when the narrator describes the scene outside Louise Mallard's window, after she's shut the door in order to gain some privacy. At this point, she "sank" down into a chair with an "exhaustion that haunted" her body—so far, all these words sound appropriate to describe the feelings and actions of a grieving woman. However, the next lines present a significant change in the story's mood:
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air [...]. The notes of a distant song which some one was singing reach her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the eaves. There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that he met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She has just learned that her husband has died tragically; I would not expect the first thing she notices to be signs of "new spring life"—this presents a hopeful scene rather than something more mournful sounding. Further, to describe the air after the rain as "delicious" is another incredibly positive word choice given the emotional state in which we would expect Louise to be. Moreover, someone is "singing" and flocks of birds are "twittering." These are also words that possess a happy connotation, rather than a sad one. Finally, the narrator points out the "blue sky," rather than any gray patches that might be left after a rain. In short, the descriptions of what Louise sees are all hopeful, full of life, and happy, even though she has just heard of a death that we would expect to affect her—and the story's mood—in quite the opposite way. I think these lines present our first clue that not all is as it seems in Louise's first reaction to the news.
The fact that Louise Mallard retreats to her room upon hearing that her husband Brently has been killed in a railroad accident is unsurprising to the reader. Her husband's friend Richards and her sister, Josephine, are in the house, but Louise wants solitude to process her emotions. Louise's desire for privacy is completely understandable after her breakdown in Josephine's arms. In fact, Louise continues to sob occasionally when she is on her own.
Eventually, it begins to occur to Louise that Brently's death means that her life will change in ways about which she begins to feel elated. These lines mark the turn in the story to the surprising feelings of elation that Louise develops:
When she abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!"
The story continues to surprise readers today, but not nearly as much as it did upon its publication in 1894.
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