The Characters in A Pair of Silk Stockings and Hands

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Characters
Characters are a significant part of any art of fiction or reality because they tell the story. The authors of novels, short stories, and other works often give characters special features depending on what they want to achieve. The main characters are the protagonists and the antagonists, who are on the opposing sides of a conflict in a story. Apart from the protagonist and the antagonist, other minor characters help build up the flesh in the story and are called minor characters after their role. Like other literary works, characters contribute to the development of the plot and themes in short stories. This essay will analyze the contribution of two characters in two different short stories and two parts. Part I explores the protagonist Mrs. Sommers in Kate Chopin's short story "A Pair of Silk Stockings," discussing what motivates her and connecting the story to a real-life example. Part II describes Henry Bradford, a minor character in Sherwood Anderson's short story "Hands," and how he brings out Myers' character, the protagonist.
Part I: Mrs. Sommers in Kate Chopin's "A Pair of Silk Stockings"
Mrs. Sommers is the protagonist in the short story "A Pair of Silk Stockings." She is hardworking and confined to domestic duties but later enjoys a bit of pleasure, freedom, and pleasure for a short time before going back to her routine. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Sommers is portrayed as a poor industrious mother whose poor neighbors believe she was rich and more fortunate before marrying Mr. Sommers. But she is blind to that as she does not want to live in the past. "The neighbors sometimes talked of certain "better days" that little Mrs. Sommers had known before she had ever thought of being Mrs. Sommers. She indulged in no such morbid retrospection. She had no time—no second of time to devote to the past (Chopin, 1).
However, fifteen dollars changes Mrs. Sommers life for one afternoon before she goes back to her routine. First, she plans to wisely use the money before changing her priorities once in the market. Her behavior in the market carries the most weight. It shows how poor people become indecisive and change their preferences when they get a little money. It also shows how poverty has imprisoned people, cutting them out from their freedom, happiness, and pleasu...