In the short story "The Story of an Hour", Kate Chopin describes an hour of a woman, a new widow seems to be, who incidentally recognizes a new free life and enjoys it just in a short moment; one hour right after getting a news of her husband's death in an accident. She has everything and nothing all in the same moment "an hour." The author delves into Louise's thoughts and feelings, and they surprisingly contradict her initial description of her. It is this intimate look at Louise that reveals the true cause of her death.

The first description that Chopin gives of Louise is her heart trouble. The author uses the article "a" in this phrase to emphasize that Mrs. Mallard suffered from a very specific aliment, not just "heart trouble" in general. The particular disease is later identified as oppression by her husband. Louise's sister, Josephine...