Thursday, December 31, 2009

A Pair of Silk Stockings, story summary

‘A Pair of Silk Stockings’, written by Kate Chopin in 1896, is a five-page fiction about a mother, Mrs. Sommer, who has conflicts within her in how to spend the ‘unexpected 15 dollars’.

She is a thrifty housewife who will always spend time bargaining and consider for a long time before deciding to buy things below cost. For one or two days she has been thinking and doing calculations about what to buy for her children with this extra amount of money. It seems as if she is a caring, devoted mother who plans for the children rather than herself. This is what she has been doing since her husband is away (die?). However, she later indulges herself with beautiful things one after another. Everything starts with a pair of silk stockings, then she buys a pair of pointed-tipped boots to suit with the stockings, a pair of gloves, two high-priced magazines, and she has tea in a fashionable, expensive restaurant. Finally she watches a movie in the cinema. She spends all the 15 dollars in merely a day and it does not go into use for her children but herself.

Readers may feel that the character is an irresponsible and inconsiderate mother who doesn’t make use of the money to obtain necessary stuff for the family. However, if we examine her psychological condition when she is a widow and has been sacrificing for the family for a long time, she needs something to comfort herself. Unconsciously she allows extravagance to dominate her necessity.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

there is no mention on whether she is a widower or not.