A Pair of Silk Stockings

Tone refers to the way the narrator presents the text’s subject, and Chopin’s choice of a nonjudgmental tone emphasizes her sympathy for Mrs. Sommers, despite the protagonist’s deviation from her motherly duty and temporary submission to an indulgent impulse. Mrs. Sommers is never characterized as selfish or inconsiderate, though she seems to spend the entirety of her $15 on herself after she had planned to spend the money on her children. When she does spend money on herself, the driving force behind the “mechanical impulse” seems to be her own desire for freedom, even for a very short while, from responsibility and effort and to embrace a very human desire for comfort, both physical and emotional. The money had given her “a feeling of importance such as she had not enjoyed for years,” showing just how unimportant and “little” she has felt for a long time (1). The items she purchases for herself give “her a feeling of assurance, a sense of belonging to the well-dressed multitude” (17). Rather than portray Mrs. Sommers as a self-interested and neglectful mother, Chopin depicts her as a long-suffering woman who has had to take a backseat in her own life but who, for once, prioritizes desire ahead of duty, and this sympathetic tone invites the reader to consider the dilemma of the story rather than to judge Mrs.