Juan José Rodríguez (A85481)

Jesús Barrios (A70906)

Brian Paz (A94653)

M.Ed. Tamatha Rabb Andrews

IO-5520 Comparative Literature

24 November 2013

"A Pair of Silk Stockings" and "The Story of an Hour":

Finding the True Self

“As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking”

Virginia Woolf 1 Throughout history, women have struggled against a

patriarchal society which have eclipsed their independence, and have failed to

recognize women as autonomous individuals with the same capabilities of men.

This struggle has had repercussions in society and is reflected in literature.

Many female writers have found a literary niche in which express their own

feelings and emotions as a reaction to patriarchal oppression. Through

literature, women have been able to present their own reality and express in

many cases, their desires of emancipation from men. When one examines

literary works from a feminist approach, it is possible to identify many aspects

about women’s desires of autonomy and selfhood; and how society has

hindered women from exploiting their own creativity and capabilities by

considering them as merely objects, or worse--- a man’s property. “The focus 1

from The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1969, pp. 352-4) from The Complete Works of Kate Chopin. (Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, 1969, pp. 500-4)

upon the silencing and oppressing of women gave way to deeper interrogation

of what a history of women’s oppression meant” (Guerin, 224) For instance, in

the literary works “The Story of an Hour” and “A Pair of Silk Stockings ” one can

uncover the female characters deepest desire to obtain autonomy and selfhood

after years of being oppressed by a patriarchal society. “The Story of an Hour”,

and “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin shared the ideal of achieving

autonomy and selfhood from a feminist perspective, but unlike “The Story of an

Hour”,“A Pair of Silk Stockings” differs in how the main character is given

freedom.

The main characters in “The Story of an Hour”2 and “A Pair of Silk

Stockings”3 do not consider themselves under the rules of patriarchy. That is

why they both assume their own selfhood. Despite the fact that both

characters are represented from a patriarchal gaze in which they are

submissive and good housewives dependent upon men; Mrs. Mallard from a

feminist perspective, is considered as a woman who struggles and calls for

freedom, and she finally reaches it once her husband is supposedly dead, being

this exemplified in her reaction when she is given the news about his final fate

as "she did not hear the story as many women have heard the same"(2). This

suggests that rather than being sad (as one may think), Louise sees the loss of

her husband as her dream becoming true, that is to say, she finally starts to

feel freedom and for the first time "she will be able to live for herself" (3).

Similarly, Mrs. Sommers in "A Pair of Silk Stockings " is portrayed as an

oppressed woman who lacks time for herself--- she carries the responsibility of

feeding and clothing her family--- but she is given the chance of freedom when

2

3

"she finds herself the unexpected possesor of fifteen dollars". It is money, a

merely sign of power attributed just to men, which makes Chopin´s character

to break routine and find her true self. Thus, although women are perceived as

"the other" within the literary texts, it can be also interpreted from a feminist

point of view, that the main characters experience an awakening of selfhood

which makes them have control of their own lives and allows them to step

aside from the patriarchal society they have been victims of.

Nevertheless, even when both characters achieve autonomy and

selfhood, the circumstances in which that occurs are different. This is evident

when analyzing the contrast between Mrs. Mallard and Mrs. Sommers way of

living. On the one hand, Mrs. Mallard is constituted as a fragile woman,

someone who has lived all her life under men´s protection and desires. In fact,

she is introduced in the text as someone weak and "great care was taken to

break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband death". People

around Louise believed that losing her husband will mean a huge pain for her

(as she is conceived weak and with a heart trouble) but from a feminist

perspective, Mrs. Mallard recognizes the death of her husband and the

subsequent breaking of her marriage tie will leave her an independent woman

who is beholden to no one in her actions (4) . Being that said, one can

appreciate that Louise has been waiting for freedom all her life, and it is

through Mr. Mallard's death that she sees herself like an autonumuos person,

capable of living the life she has always wanted, "a little whispered word

escaped her slightly parted lips. She said it over and over under her breath:

"free, free, free!". On the other hand, Mrs. Sommers is portrayed as a stronger

woman (opposite to Mrs. Mallard) and the head of the family, the one in charge

of bringing the bread to the table. The condition makes her mentally

depressed; in other words, she cannot think of herself but of satisfying her

children's needs. Although Mrs. Sommers had previously had the chance of

doing what she wanted, she condemned herself to a life of absolute submission

to work and family. It is until money makes her think of freedom that she finds

herself released; however, she was not aware of that fact as "she was not

going through any acute mental process or reasoning with herself, nor was she

striving to explain to her satisfaction the motive of her action. She was not

thinking at all". Certainly, like Mrs. Mallard, Mrs. Sommers reaches selfhood

and autonomy when buying the pair of silk stockings but the circumstances

under which this happens seem to be new for her. Thus, along the two literary

texts, Chopin presents the struggle the main characters have to face to

achieve autonomy in which while Mrs. Mallard is afraid of freedom and

conforms to her role as housewife, Mrs. Sommers strives for freedom for

herself.

All the same, both characters experience death at the end of their

journey when they reached autonomy. Mrs. Mallard experiences a real death

(physic death) and Mrs. Sommers' death is merely symbolic. When her husband

died the first idea that comes to Mrs. Mallard’s mind is "freedom" and

immediately a bunch of mixed feelings invade her being. The thought that she

would be in fact a new person, made that Mrs. Mallard changed the perception

of her future, making her a hopeful person. However, she encounters death as

soon as she realizes her husband was not dead, as she believed, and her desire

for freedom and autonomy vanished. It is very ironic that Mrs. Mallard's life was

violently cut short a few minutes after she said “Life might be long” (2). Death

is portrayed this way as the end of any individual who is not able to do his/her

will and who is subordinated to someone else's desires and commandments.

On the other hand, Mrs. Sommers experiences a figurative death when her day,

being outside and doing things by herself, reaches its end, as she has to come

back to her sphere and be again a submissive woman; member of a patriarchal

bubble that in a determined moment she could escape. Although, she did not

experience physical death ,as is the case of Mrs. Mallard, both characters

experienced the end of liberty; the liberty that they tried to find. Death comes

as the end of autonomy for these characters; showing that when one has no

control over his own life it loses all meaning. That is precisely what happened

to Mrs. Sommers, although she did not die physically, her identity as a woman

and as an independent person died from a feminist perspective.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author:

Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38), though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17).

Citing two books by the same author:

Murray states that writing is "a process" that "varies with our thinking style" (Write to Learn 6). Additionally, Murray argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from the mind of one person into the mind of another" (A Writer Teaches Writing 3).

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, you would format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, followed, when appropriate, by page numbers:

Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies" 63).

This is from a "Pair of Silk Stockings" to give you a sense of what page each of your quotes are located within the Complete Works of Kate Chopin.

The page 500 begins the story and ends with "The seeds of the

Page 501 ends with "She handed the girl a five-dollar bill . . .

Page 502 ends with "Mrs. Sommers bought two . . .

Page 503 ends with "eat candy and display

And page 504 contains the ending to the story.

"The Story of an Hour"

Page 352 is the beginning of the story to "facing her window."

Page 353 ends with "impulse of her being!"

Page 354 finishes the rest of the story.