Before reading this post, if you haven't already done so, please read the first part here . It has a very brief note on t he story's author , covers the plot, characters and setting. You can find the story itself here . This second part will deal with point of view, themes, symbolism, irony, the story's ti tle , and will t ry to give some explanations as to the reasons why Mrs. Sommers g ave in to temptation.

If I were to say that the typical love triangle is substituted for a different one in the opening paragraph of  Kate Chopin's "A Pair of Silk Stockings", few students would believe this is possible. In fact, when students give me feedback on this short story, it usually is negative, not because they didn't get it -- it's written plainly enough -- but because there's nothing going on in it, as they say. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is a symptom of the disease rampant in the 21st century called 'boxofficematerialitis', an epidemic conjoined with 'keeptheirinterestbyusingquicksuccessionofimagesitis', which has given rise to what has been conveniently labelled attention deficit disorder. The fact of the matter is that if there's no real action, that is, action which contains a number of spectacular car chases, shoot-'em-up scenes, explosions, or dirty underhanded scheming (that results in one or all of the aforementioned chases, sc...