What role does the snow have in the last scene of "The Dead"?

One of the central themes of "The Dead" and indeed all of
the stories from the book in which this story appears, Dubliners,
is that of paralysis and the way that the past and deadening routines can actually
produce in us a real paralysis that prevents us from making decisions or acting upon our
feelings and judgements. Take Gabriel Conroy, for example. He is a character that is
obsessed by the image that others have of him, that really prevents him from doing
anything meaningful. He worries constantly about his speech, and whether including a
poem would make it too "high-brow" for the audience. He wants to kiss his wife at one
stage, but never actually gets round to it. He is a character who defines the kind of
paralysis that Joyce is writing about, in sharp contrast to Michael
Furey.

At the end of the story, the snow acts as something
that unites both the dead and the living in this state of
paralysis:

His
soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and
faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the
dead.

However, interestingly,
although the snow is shown to cover all of Ireland, suggesting that the entire nation is
subject to this state of frozen paralysis, there is some hope offered by Gabriel's last
thoughts, as humans might be able to free themselves from this state of paralysis:
"Better to pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than
fade and wither dismally with age." Letus remember that snow is rare in Ireland in
January, and therefore will not last forever.