Resumen De A Pair Of Silk Stockings

A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS

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CHARACTERS.

* Mrs. Sommers—"Little Mrs. Sommers," as Kate Chopin phrases she:

In "A Pair of Silk Stockings," she obtains fifteen dollars and, rather than spending it practically, uses it to temporarily experience affluence and the fulfillment of desire for the first time in many years. (obtiene quince dólares y, en vez de gastarlo en la práctica, la utiliza para experimentar temporalmente la riqueza y la satisfacción del deseo, por primera vez en muchos años).

She has two children, Janie and Mag.

* a shop girl

* a "gaudy" woman next to Mrs. Sommers at the theatre. Description gaudy: Tastelessly flashy and overdecorated.

* a man across from Mrs. Sommers on the cable car.

TIME AND PLACE.

The story takes place in an unnamed city--a city large enough to have a department store, a fashionable restaurant, a theatre, and a cable car--probably in the early 1890s.

The Historical Context of Kate Chopin's Short Stories

"A Pair of Silk Stockings" also indicate the changes in society in the decades after the war. For example, Mrs. Sommers no longer faces the problems of an antebellum(sociedad antes de la guerra) society and grapples(enfrenta) instead with the more modern problems of wealth(riqueza) and consumerism(consumismo) in her inner conflict.

MAJOR THEMES.

Independence and autonomy.

Many of the inner(interior) conflicts faced by Chopin's heroines are essentially issues of autonomy, in which the protagonist attempts to gain or regain an aspect of control in her life. Most notably, in "The Story of an Hour," Louise Mallard recognizes that the death of her husband and the subsequent breaking of the marriage tie will leave her an independent woman who is beholden to no one in her actions, and "Beyond the Bayou" ends with the main character La Folle realizing that the end of her fear of the world outside of the bayou's boundaries has given her a world of new possibilities. Nevertheless, Chopin sometimes shows that these moments of freedom can be extremely tenuous or temporary, as Mrs. Mallard discovers when her husband returns home uninjured, and as Mrs. Sommers finds when she is forced to return to her life of enforced frugality(moderación) after a day of indulging(caída) her desires in "A Pair of Silk Stockings."

QUOTES.

"There were many others who were there solely for the play and acting. It is safe to say there was no one present who bore quite the attitude which Mrs. Sommers did to her surroundings. She gathered in the whole--stage and players and people in one wide impression, and absorbed it and enjoyed it". "A Pair of Silk Stockings"

As this excerpt suggests, when Mrs. Sommers decides to attend a play in "A Pair of Silk Stockings," she does not attend for the same reasons as those around her. Whereas the other theatergoers presumably are accustomed to the presence of money and think nothing of going to a play to enjoy themselves for an evening, Mrs. Sommers is not enjoying the acting so much as the experience of wealth, which for her is a temporary effect borrowed from her unexpected acquisition of fifteen dollars. Consequently, the play acts for Mrs. Sommers as a return to her more affluent past, and the entire incident that begins with her purchase of silk stockings is tinted with melancholy because both the reader and Mrs. Sommers know that the effect cannot last. However, at this moment, Mrs. Sommers chooses to ignore this knowledge and immerses herself in the experience of the theater.

SUMMARY

Little Mrs. Sommers unexpectedly acquires fifteen dollars, which seems like a large amount to her. Feeling important and wealthy, she considers how to invest her money, feeling that she must carefully allocate her funds. During the night, she thinks of a sensible use for the money.

She determines that she should spend a dollar or two extra for Janie's shoes, so that they will last longer and be of better quality, and she plans to buy some fabric for her children's clothing. After that, she will still have enough money for new stockings and hats for everyone, which pleases her because her children will have new clothing for the first time in a while. Mrs. Sommers used to have more money long ago, before her marriage, but she does not worry about the past or the future, focusing mostly on the present.

Mrs. Sommers is accustomed to bargaining, but today she is tired and forgets to eat lunch prior to shopping. While sitting on a stool to rest before her shopping, she realizes that her hand has brushed against a pair of two-dollar silk stockings. She continues to feel the luxurious fabric and asks the shop girl for a pair in her size.

After choosing a black pair of stockings, Mrs. Sommers buys them and goes directly to the ladies' waiting room to change. For once, she abandons thinking about responsibility or about why she is so satisfied at her purchase. She sits in the room for a while, reveling in her stockings, before going to the shoe department, where she tries to find a pair of shoes to suit her stockings.

She pays for a stylish pair of boots, although they cost a dollar or two more than her usual shoes, and she then goes to the glove counter. She has not been fitted with gloves for a long time because they are too expensive, but she takes pleasure in the experience. She also buys two expensive magazines such as those that she used to read long ago, and she enjoys a new feeling of assurance in her new clothes.

Hungry, she decides against her usual approach, which is to wait until she returns home and then find a bit of food. Instead, she follows her impulse and goes to a nice restaurant, where she has a small, tasty meal as she takes off her gloves and reads her magazine, sipping her wine. No one looks at her askance, and not minding the price, Mrs. Sommers even leaves a tip for the waiter as she leaves.

She next enters a theater to watch a play. Many of the people are at the theater primarily to enjoy the play, but Mrs. Sommers absorbs the entire experience. Afterward, Mrs. Sommers waits for a cable car to take her home, and the man opposite her studies her expression. Bemused, he sees nothing and does not discern her desire for the cable car to keep going forever and never stop.

ANALYSIS.

In "A Pair of Silk Stockings," 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, reflecting her subconscious craving for the autonomy and independence that she does not have while

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