Greed In Ernest Hemingway's Mrs. Sommers

Although she is used to supporting her children on a small amount of money, Mrs. Sommers was once very wealthy. Despite her subconscious dissatisfaction with her present life, she tries not to dwell on the past. When Mrs. Sommers finds herself with fifteen dollars, she plans to spend the money on new clothes from her children, but due to some subconscious urge, she treats herself to new accessories, a meal at a restaurant, and a movie. It might seem to readers that Mrs. Sommers is a selfish person, but she spent the money the way she did not out of greed but out of longing for the happier times of her past.

The narrator makes clear throughout the story that Mrs. Sommers and her family doesn’t have much in the way of money. Many of Mrs. Sommer’s

actions show that she is accustomed to making the most of her money and saving it where she can. For example, when Mrs. Sommers gets hungry, she thinks about how she usually would have “stilled the cravings for food until reaching her own home, where she would have brewed a cup of tea and taken a snack of anything that was available.” Another instance of this is when Mrs. Sommers considers what to buy with her money; it’s stated that she “knew the value of bargains” and could “stand for hours making her way inch by inch toward the desired object that was selling below cost”. These examples show that Mrs. Sommers is used to making ends meet with a limited amount of money and is willing to go to great lengths to support her family.

Despite Mrs. Sommers’ current financial state, there was a time in her youth when she was wealthy and lived a luxurious life. This is demonstrated at multiple points throughout the story. For example, unlike her neighbors, who sometimes speak of the “better days” when they lived in wealth, Mrs. Sommers “indulged in no such morbid retrospection…The needs of the present absorbed her every faculty”. This quote both confirms that Mrs. Sommers was not always poor and demonstrates her character. She tries to compartmentalize the different states of her life and does not dwell on the past, knowing that it will only cause her sadness to compare what her life once was to what it is now, but at the same time she feels subconscious regret and longing for her old life.

Mrs.

Sommers and her family have been poor in recent years, and she genuinely wants her children to be happy. Therefore, when she receives the money, her first impulse is to think of what clothes she will buy for her children; the narrator states that “The vision of her little brood looking fresh and dainty for once in their lives excited her and made her restless and wakeful with anticipation.” Therefore, we know that Mrs. Sommers does not only want to buy her children things out of a sense of duty, but because she truly loves them and feels guilty that they don’t always have nice clothes and other luxuries. Her self-indulgent shopping spree may make readers perceive her as selfish, but in reality, she is accustomed to serving others before she even thinks of herself.

Throughout A Pair of Silk Stockings, readers learn a lot about Mrs. Sommers and the life she leads. Mrs. Sommers is currently poor and used to supporting her children on a small amount of money, there was a time in her life where she lived in luxury and spent money with abandon. Mrs. Sommers is a practical-minded person who does not dwell on the past and genuinely doesn’t mind spending money on her children; her frivolous use of the fifteen dollars was not motivated by selfishness but by a subconscious longing for her old

life.