Read the following excerpt from Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," in which the protagonist, Louise Mallard, is contemplating her life after learning of the death of her husband. No; she was drinking the very elixir of life through that open window. Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long.

Based on the excerpt, what does the open window come to symbolize for Louise?