In both stories, husbands fulfilled their expected role as head of the family. Unlike "The Story of an Hour", a deeper and more complex relationship exists in "The Yellow Wallpaper". John dictated what his wife did, but he did it out of pure love, and in return, a greater sense of mutual love and empathy existed. John has based all of his precautions and decisions on his wife's recovery, and the narrator submits to John's will because she does not want to "make him uncomfortable" and bother him. This mutual concern for the other does not appear in “The Story of a