Question

Discussion board

What is your thought on the the story "A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopins

Answer 1

" A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS" by KATE CHOPINS:-
- In this short story little Mrs. Sommers faces a minor dilemma that eventually becomes a conscious expression of her desire to return to a past that she can no longer have.
-Mrs. Sommers does not merely aspire to wealth in the manner of those who have never had money, instead, as Mrs. Sommers's neighbors note, she has in fact seen better days and intuitively equates her youth with simple luxuries such as silk stockings and kid gloves.
-The second element of Mrs. Sommers's motivation for her impulse purchases relates to her need to assert personal autonomy.
- As Chopin establishes at the beginning of the story, Mrs. Sommers has several children to feed and clothe, and her first thoughts for spending her money come directly from the need to scrimp and save every scrap of her money.
- in this short story Allen Stein argues that serpentine silk stockings represent the empty consumerism that Mrs. Sommers uses to try to escape her life.
- Describing Mrs. Sommers as "little," Chopin refers to more than her physical stature.
- The neighbors are all aware of what Mrs. Sommers' social standing had been before her marriage, and see how her marriage has reduced her.
- Until she finds the stockings, Mrs. Sommers has been able to maintain her selflessness.
- But the temptation proves too much and she succumbs to the "mechanical impulse that directed her actions and freed her of responsibility.