The symbolism of Louise's death at the end of this short story shows how tragic someone's life can be when deprived of self-expression. Some critics like Madonne Miner assert that “by seeing her husband. Pou suffers a heart attack and dies" (Cunningham) others like Emily Toth "argue that Louise must die at the end of "The Story of an Hour" because the idea that she could live as that a widow happy about the death of her husband was "far too radical, far too threatening" for publishers and readers in the 1890s" (Cunningham). Chopin is such a gifted writer that she ends the story with an ironic phrase: “When the doctors came, they said she had died of heart disease – of a joy that kills” (1203) which can be interpreted as having died of immense joy at seeing her husband alive or that she died of disappointment upon realizing that her fantasized freedom would no longer be possible. With a single sentence, Chopin is able to respond both to the expectation of patriarchal society, that Louise deserved to die to rejoice in the death of her husband, and also to satisfy the feminist audience with the possibility that she would rather die than continue living a repressed life.