The film is usually a little different than the play.
The theme of the story expressed in that action is the submission and lack of freedom of women in marriages in those times.
In Chopin's "<em>The Story of an Hour</em>", Louise Mallard feels free when knowing that her husband passed away because she felt imprisoned being married to him. Given the patriarchal society and the way women were seen in her times, she never could really live the way she wanted and had to submit to him.
