If "The Story of an Hour," in some sense, is a story about a symbolic journey. Where does Mrs. Mallard "travel"?

In "The Story of an Hour", Louise runs away to her room
after hearing from Richards that her (Louise's) husband had been killed in a train
wreck.  Being that she has poor health, defined in the story as "heart trouble", the
news is given to her as succinctly and yet as tenderly as
possible. 

At the most literal level, the symbolic journey
that she takes occurs in her mind, but it is also aided by the window in her room. This
window appears to have served as a type of oracle for Louise--one through which she
would visualize her freedom, and herself, as something other than a married woman and
housewife. 

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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.

The story further
explains that the square that makes up the frame of the window served as an agent of
visualization, which (like a painting, a screen, or even a modern TV), would allow her
to see tree tops, nature, and all the wide open spaces from afar. These are the very
spaces that she wishes to occupy. Mrs. Mallard is more wild in spirit, much stronger,
and much more passionate about things than what her current status as a society lady
lets her show. It is no wonder that she felt relieved and liberated upon finding out
about the death of her husband. 

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There were patches of blue sky showing here and
there through the clouds that had met and piled one above the other in the west facing
her window.

As the window is
mentioned nearly 3 times in a row, we cannot deny its importance as the niche that
Louise may have preferred throughout her marriage to see the world outside of her home.
As a woman of her generation, she must have been asked to embody the crux imposed upon
all women of her time, to be the "angels" of the household. Hence, Louise Mallard lost
herself in the process of becoming "one with her husband". She obviously resents that,
and the liberation from her husband represents a chance to lead another type of
life. 

It also comes to no surprise that, upon her mental
return from the fields and "blue patches of sky" that constituted her future and
potential freedom, she literally drops dead at the sight of her (very much alive)
husband entering the home. It had been a misunderstanding; Brently was not dead. So
Louise had a heart attack which was ironically confused with "joy that
kills".