The man in "Death by Scrabble" is feeling anger towards his wife as he competes with her in a Scrabble game. His feelings of anger intensify as the competition intensifies, because he wants to win, and he knows she is a good opponent. He feels he wants to murder her rather than see her win.

He changes as his feelings move simply from being feelings to a growing conviction that the words on the Scrabble board have power over the physical world. They don't just express emotion but what he wants to literally happen.

As he begins to believe the words have power, the narrator tests the theory with the word "quake"—and is gratified when a quake occurs. He states:

I can feel the trembling energy of potential in my veins. I am commanding fate. I am manipulating destiny.

His wife is also having murderous feelings toward the husband. We know this because she spells out the word death just as the quake occurs, and then watches him without making any move to help as he chokes on a tile and falls to the floor.

Readers may sympathize with the wife, as she seems to be trying to calm her husband, for example when she puts down the word caution.

There are many possible alternative endings, but one could be that the wife decides to save the husband, and his anger goes away.