Filmmakers benefit from artistic license because cinema is an art and because cinema and literature are not always exactly compatible. There are many artistic components to filmmaking. The plot or story behind the film is one of the most important elements. The creators of The Joy That Kills, in making a cinematic version of Kate Chopin's short story, The Story of an Hour, have pushed artistic license to its limits. The entire story was taken apart and then completely reinvented. Many characters who are not present or even appear in the story emerge to play important roles in the life of this young woman suffering from heart problems in the film. Louise and the other characters changed dramatically in the transition to celluloid. The filmmakers, in trying to make a more engaging film, forgot the story they were supposed to tell. Louise has become a little girl who must depend on man to take care of her. Louise begs Brently to go to the gardens of Paris. She begs like a child asking for something that cannot be given. Brently must lock her in their home to protect her from her curiosity and her need to see the world. The filmmakers don't give her the sense to realize the dangers she would run in seeing Paris and all the other places she would like to visit. Louise remains the little girl in flashbacks and Brently has replaced her deceased father as guardian of the soul of her world. Brently must protect her from the world and herself. She is made to be completely dependent on him, from her daily needs to her only window to the outside world. There is no position of female authority in his life. Aunt Joe remains in the background and Marjorie ultimately has to answer to Brently. Louise must consider men as the only authority in her life. She herself, as a woman, must feel powerless in the face of the will of men. Brently even chooses the destinations for his daily visits to faraway and exotic places. These excursions are Louise's only escape. Brently is made to be both his captor and his savior. Her fate depends completely on his, but she has no control over either..