A Pair of Silk Stockings

“A Pair of Silk Stockings” (1897) is a short story (2000-words) written by Kate Chopin, first published in Vogue magazine. The story is a work of Literary Realism, set at the time of publication and told from the third-person point of view. It describes the experience of Mrs. Sommers, a married, middle-class woman raising a family on a modest income, who unexpectedly comes into $15, a considerable amount of money in 1897. The interest of the story is created by her feelings and decisions in relation to this money.

Kate Chopin was a successful writer by the time “A Pair of Silk Stockings” was published. In her work, which includes two novels and around 100 shorter works of fiction and nonfiction, Chopin often focused on the plight of middle- or upper-class married women living in the American South. These characters are frequently torn between living up to society’s expectations for women during this time—including an absolute devotion to one’s husband and children—and satisfying their own desires, often for independence, self-indulgence, or sexual or financial freedom. The themes and focus of her writing made her an ideal contributor to the magazines of the day (especially those with a predominantly female readership) and she wrote regularly for Vogue. “A Pair of Silk Stockings” is one of 19 short stories she published with the magazine in the 1890s. The context of Vogue as a contemporary, aspirational magazine focusing on women’s fashion, pursuits, and experiences informs the presentation of the story’s main themes of Duty Versus Desire, Society’s Expectation of Women’s Self-Sacrifice , and The Human Need for Self-Indulgence. While a concise and simply told story, “A Pair of Silk Stockings” raises complex questions about the identity and status of women at the time, morality, agency, and consumerism.

This guide refers to the version of the text that is available on the Kate Chopin International Society website. Note: Citations make reference to the paragraph number.

Mrs. Sommers “finds herself unexpectedly the possessor of fifteen dollars” (1). The story does not disclose how the money came to Mrs. Sommers but it is clear that the decision on how and whether to spend it is hers. The money feels like to her like “a very large amount of money” (1). (Adjusting for inflation, $15 is equal to around $530 in 2023.) Mrs. Sommers makes detailed plans to use her money in a “proper and judicious” way: She will purchase better shoes for one child, material with which to make new shirts for all her children as well as a gown for one, new stockings for her girls, and new hats all around (3). She finds pleasure in how much work “mending” and “darning” she will be saved and is excited by the idea of her family looking “fresh and dainty” (3), but it seemingly does not cross her mind to spend any of the money on herself.

Mrs. Sommers neighbors sometimes reflect on her past and the “better days” in her life was for her before she married, indicating that married life and the births of several children means her living somewhat below the level to which she’d been brought up. However, Mrs. Sommers herself is so thoroughly preoccupied by the present needs of her children that she has no time to waste pining for the past and little time to spare worrying about the future, as “the needs of the present absorbed her every faculty” (4). There is no mention of her husband in her story, which leaves open the possibility that she is a widow and raising her family in circumstances straitened not only by marriage but by bereavement.

When Mrs. Sommers goes hunting for bargains for her children, she realizes her own tiredness, and it occurs to her that she has forgotten to eat lunch. While she is thinking, she finds herself sitting at a sales counter, absentmindedly stroking a luxurious pair of silk stockings. They are on sale, although still expensive, and there are myriad colors in her size. Mrs. Sommers purchases a black pair for just under $2. The story notes how small the parcel is and how it seems to disappear into her capacious, shabby bag.

After taking an elevator up to a ladies’ dressing room, Mrs. Sommers removes her cotton hose and replaces them with the silk stockings, enjoying the purely physical joy of the way material feels on her skin. Mrs. Sommers then goes to the shoe department and buys a pair of boots that makes her ankle and foot look stylish. They look so pretty, in fact, that she has trouble believing the feet she sees are truly her own.

After buying the boots, Mrs. Sommers proceeds to the glove counter and is fitted with a pair of tasteful, well-fitting gloves. Next, she purchases two expensive fashion magazines “such as she had been accustomed to read in the days when she had been accustomed to other pleasant things” (17), another reference to her more affluent past. Feeling more confident now, as a result of her new things, she carries herself differently. She stops for lunch at a fashionable restaurant which she has not previously dared to enter, admiring the crystal and the expensive tablecloths. She enjoys a leisurely meal of oysters, salad, meat, dessert, wine, and coffee, all while reading her magazines and enjoying the feeling of belonging to this scene; she even leaves the waiter a generous tip at which he bows to her “as before a Princess of royal blood” (21). Next, she sees a matinee poster and goes in. During the play, she observes and appreciates everything, from the actors and the stage to the other members of the audience. When the show is over, “it was like a dream ended” (24) and Mrs. Sommers goes outside to wait for the cable car to take her home.

On the car, a discerning-looking man observes her, puzzled to make out her emotions. He does not guess that Mrs. Sommers wishes “that the cable car would never stop anywhere, but go on and on with her forever” (25).