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Essay on Victorian Era in Kate Chopin's A Pair of Silk Stockings

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During the Victorian Era women struggled to fulfill their desires and men encountered women to get only what was necessary for the household, trying to escape from responsibility they go onto the direction that their impulse takes them, however not for long, after a dream of having what they long for they still have to face reality of being a wife and mother. Kate uses imagery to indicate how women struggle to abandon their needs followed by an isolated and dreamy tone. After having the role of being a mother and a wife, a woman expects to be apart from responsibilities and feel the lightness of freedom. Especially after having the life of a princess and caring royal blood, “…the way in which it stuffed and bulged her worn…show more content…
When entering into a different society not everyone is able adapt to it. Ms. Sommer refers back to her past in the time where she confronted no struggles and money was never a problem, “She had never entered its doors; from the outside she had sometimes caught glimpses of spotless damask and shining crystal, and soft-stepping waiters serving people of fashion” (Chopin). Ms. Sommer is now living her fantasy dream and making her “fifteen dollars” last for all her yearnings. Her fantasy is every woman’s hope, but are not able to give themselves any pleasure because of their routines and responsibility of women in the Victorian Era. Kate applies an isolated tone to describe the shifts of Ms. Sommer and ho she starts to think different when she has the stocking in her hand, “By degrees she grew aware that her hand had encountered something very soothing, very pleasant to touch” (Chopin). After having the inducement of softness in her hand it brings back her old memories of when she was wealthy. Kate’s tone shifts from isolated to dreamy, because at first she thought for her children, but then at last realized that she never got anything to satisfy her own desire; therefore she starts to be selfish and starts dreaming of what she prefers her life to be like. All her dreams fall apart
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