Review-A Pair of Silk Stockings by Katie Chopin

For my English Literature class we were asked to find a short story to analyse, and I stumbled across "A pair of Silk Stockings" by Katie Chopin. In this post I will be giving a review of the short story and also answering three questions on the theme,characterization and the setting.

Review:
The story is based around a women called Mrs.Sommers who finds herself in the possession of fifteen dollars, and this is quite a lot of money for her as she is poor. Mrs.Sommers then enjoys her experience with this vast sum of money, which includes splurging on a pair of silk stockings, having gloves fitted in a department store,buying an expensive pair of boots and also buying glossy magazines. She also goes to a nice restaurant to have a meal, and then goes to the theater. Mrs.Sommers takes in the entire experience of the theater, the play, the people, the surroundings etc. She then waits for a cable car home, where she is studied by a man, who seems to understand that she wants to stay in this day forever.

The story of "A Pair of Silk Stockings" shows Mrs.Sommers wishes for her old life, as we get the feeling from the story that she never used to have finical hardship. The fact that Mrs. Sommers seems to get so much joy by having fifteen pounds and being able to spend a little bit more on boots, stockings etc gives us a sense that she would love to return to her old life, and that these items give her a sense of nostalgia. We also know that the items give her a break from her "normal life", she has several children to feed as we are told at the start of the story, and so we can assume that she does not get much time to herself or any money to spend on frivolous things. The story is set in the 1890's, so fifteen pounds would be a huge sum of money, but would not last forever. The fact Mrs.Sommers idea of a luxury item is to spend it on a pair of silk stockings shows us that she does have serious finical hardship, and so we the reader feel like we can forgive her for spending the money on herself.

The tone of the story seems to be a quite dreamy tone,even though it is written in third person narrative. The way Mrs.Sommers complexion and tone of voice is described when she buys the luxury items gives us a sense of how giddy she must feel. Her actions almost seem to be done in a dreamlike state, "not thinking at all" when she puts on her stockings, gives the reader a sense of how exciting and rare this is for her to be buying such luxury items.

The end of the story ends with a man studying her whilst she is waiting for her cable car. The man studying her seems to realise that she wishes the cable car would just keep on going as she does not want to return to her present life. Her situation seems worse at the end of the story at the start, the fifteen dollars allowed her to escape from her present life but now she has had a taste of her old life and the despair and desire to go back to it is now overwhelming.

Although "A Pair of Silk Stockings" is a short story, the style of the writing and the story itself allows the reader to understand the character of Mrs.Sommers and to gain empathy with her and her current life. Rating: ***

Questions:
What purpose does the story seem to have?
The purpose of the story, although short, seems to be to tell the reader that although money can bring you joy for a day, it can never truly make you happy. Mrs.Sommers did end up being happy during the time she was spending the money but at the end of the story she was even more dissatisfied with her life than before,because she had a taste of her old life.

What forces or circumstances make one of the characters act in a certain way?
The circumstances of Mrs.Sommers life influence the story in a huge way. Mrs.Sommers has several children and so has finical hardship, but we can assume that she had a good life before and was able to afford the things she wanted. Her current background causes her to spend the day treating herself and spending the fifteen dollars in a frivolous way, but because of her background we can empathise with her.

Has the setting increased your knowledge of a specific time and place?
The story is set in the 1890's, which helps us the reader understand why Mrs.Sommers is so happy with fifteen dollars, as back then it was considered a lot of money. We can also understand why she is in finical hardship, as back in the 1890's there was no state handouts, and times were tough for the normal everyday citizen. The fact she also has several children would also add to her finical hardship.