A Literature Analysis of “A Pair of Silk Stockings”:
Mrs. Somers or Mrs. Chopin?
"A Pair of Silk Stockings" by Kate Chopin tells the tale of a woman who ventures out to purchase clothing for her children, but impulsively decides to spend the money on herself, showing expensive taste. In reading the story, one must ask if "A Pair of Silk Stockings" was a metaphor for Chopin's own life after her husband’s untimely death. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Sommers, a poor and rather homely woman in the 1890’s, comes into the possession a significant sum of fifteen dollars. After spending several days considering how to spend the money, she finally decides to spend it on clothing for her children. That all changes with the purchase of a single pair of silk stockings. Instead of buying what she intended, she proceeds to spend the entire amount on herself. Her purchases include things that make her appear to be a woman of high society.
Sommers, after carefully planning out how to spend the money suddenly spend it all on herself in a fruitless effort to become that woman she once was? Because that was all Chopin wanted.
Works Cited
Chopin, Kate. “A Pair of Silk Stockings.” PBS.org, n.d., www.pbs.org/katechopin/library/silkstockings.html. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017.
Stein, Allen. "Kate Chopin's 'A Pair of Silk Stockings': The Marital Burden and the Lure of Consumerism." Short Story Criticism, edited by Jelena O. Krstovic, vol. 139, Gale, 2010. Literature Resource Center, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GLS&sw=w&u=nhmccd_main&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CH1420101024&it=r&asid=109e9af133e4f9e9d2e4f14e1fc9100b. Accessed 30 Oct. 2017. Originally published in Mississippi Quarterly, vol. 57, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 357-368
Toth, Emily. “A Writer, Her Reviewers, and Her Markets.” Kate Chopin, Updated Edition, Chelsea House, 2007. Bloom's Literature, online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/47321?q=Kate chopin a pair of silk stockings. Accessed 30 Oct.
Papke, Mary E. Verging on the Abyss: The Social Fiction of Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1990.
On the surface, the protagonists of Silko's "Yellow Woman" and Chopin's "Story of an Hour" seem to have little in common. Yet upon closer inspection, both stories relate tales of women who are repressed by the social tenets that define their roles as wives.
The “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and ‘”The Hand” by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette are similar in theme and setting. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Kate Chopin create the theme of obligatory love and the unhappiness it entails. Both stories illustrate the concealed emotions many women feel in their marriage yet fail to express them. The two stories take place in a sacred room of the house and both transpire in a brief amount of time. The differences between the two stories are seen through the author’s choice of characters in each story. In “The story of an Hour” Kate Chopin involves other characters in Mrs. Mallard’s life, whereas, “The Hand” deals with marriage and togetherness and only involves the husband and wife. Symbolism is seen all throughout “The Hand” not so in ‘The Story of an Hour.” The similarities in “The Story of an Hour” and “The Hand” is portrayed in theme and setting. The differences are illustrated in the choice of characters involved in each story and the amount of symbolism depicted in the different stories.
Kate Chopin was born February 8, 1850 in St. Louis. She was raised by a single woman; this impacted her views in the family at an early age. She began her own family at a young age; Kate had a different method compare too many women in her time. As time progressed, she developed a bad habit of dressing inappropriately. Soon she started to publish stories about the experiences and stories of her interests such as women’s individuality and miserable
Chopin, Kate. "The Story of an Hour." Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Boston:
When Howard asserts that “it is the woman who demands her own direction and chooses her own freedom that interests Chopin most” (1) she is right on target. Howard only fails when she chooses not to expand that vision to include the truly feminist perspectives that differentiate Chopin as a woman far ahead of her time.
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. 2nd. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994. Print.
Davis, Sara de Saussure. "Kate Chopin." Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 12 pp. 59-71. Literature Resource Center. Gale Group Databases. Central Lib. Fort Worth, TX. 11 Feb. 2003
The Artful Deception of Socialistic Practices in The Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
Chopin reflects her rejection of the “postures of femininity” through her character’s descriptions. She describes her as “young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression.” Describing her as young and calm are what men looked for in a wife in the 19th century. They wanted a submissive woman to tend to their needs as Chopin’s description suggests. Furthermore, Chopin says of her character Mrs. Mallard, “she would live for herself.” Her character believes she will now be free of her marriage, and won’t be “repressed” as aforementioned any longer by her husband. Wives had a natural servitude towards their husbands as husbands worked and went about their lives. All in all, Chopin displays her character as having a joyous moment after the death of her husband because she is let go of being forced into her “femininity.”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 5th Ed. -. W.W. Norton & Co., NY. 1998. The. Chopin, Kate.
... This woman suffers a tremendous amount from the commitment of her marriage, and the death of her husband does not affect her for long. A marriage such as this seems so unbelievable, yet a reader can see the realistic elements incorporated into the story. This begs the question of how undesirable marriage was during Chopin’s life. The unhappiness felt by Mrs. Mallard seems to be very extreme, but Chopin creates a beautiful story that reflects upon the idea of marriage as an undesired relationship and bond to some women in the nineteenth century.
“There is no perfect relationship. The idea that there is gets us into so much trouble.”-Maggie Reyes. Kate Chopin reacts to this certain idea that relationships in a marriage during the late 1800’s were a prison for women. Through the main protagonist of her story, Mrs. Mallard, the audience clearly exemplifies with what feelings she had during the process of her husbands assumed death. Chopin demonstrates in “The Story of an Hour” the oppression that women faced in marriage through the understandings of: forbidden joy of independence, the inherent burdens of marriage between men and women and how these two points help the audience to further understand the norms of this time.
Chopin, Kate. The Story of an Hour. 11th . New York, London: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2013. 476-477. Print.
In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.