A Pair of Silk Stockings

Fifteen dollars has been enough to bring Mrs. Sommers back to her past and to give her an evanescent. The role of the family was not going out and spending money on yourself, they expected everything from their mother. Starting from cleaning their clothes, cleaning the house, anything a maid would do today. It wasn’t fair at all towards the mothers back in the day, but that’s how society was. Not a thing could’ve changed how society was back then because nobody ever looked at how the wife/mother feels because they didn’t care enough. There were moments throughout the story she had thought about her kids when she was buying herself gloves and hats but she didn’t hesitate to treat herself because it had been so long and she felt like she deserved it after to do so much for her family. (“On Impulse however this long-deprived woman spends all the money on herself, striving for one day at the least self-indulgence, one day that might hint of some personal autonomy in a pinched and narrowed existence” Kate Chopin: “A Pair of Silk Stockings”; The Marital Burden and the Lure of Consumerism Page 1)
As Allen Stein pointed out “Further as Doris Davis sees it, Mrs. Sommers has used her money ‘to nurture her sense of esthetics’, and action that Chopin seems to suggest is important for this character development” Page 1) Mrs. Sommers found the unexpected of 15 dollars and the first thing she thought about was her kids, but that was quickly changed due to the fact that she felt she deserved it. (“At a quick glance, Mrs. Sommers effort seems something of a success. She buys herself a pair of silk stockings and then, to complement them, one pair of costly shoes and one of kid gloves; next, her spree in the store completed, she treats herself to two “high-priced magazines,” browses through them while having a pleasant lunch in a upscale restaurant, and closes her day by attending the theater for a matinee performance” Kate Chopin: “A pair of Silk Stockings”: The Marital burden and