How is Elisa characterized in the chrysanthemums?

How is Elisa characterized in the chrysanthemums?

A robust thirty-five-year-old woman, Elisa lives with her husband, Henry, on a ranch in the Salinas Valley. Even though Elisa is associated with fertility and sexuality, the couple has no children. She is a hard worker, her house sparkles, and her flowers grow tremendous blooms.

What kind of person is Elisa in the chrysanthemums?

Elisa Allen Character Analysis in The Chrysanthemums | LitCharts. Instant downloads of all 1530 LitChart PDFs (including The Chrysanthemums).

How is Elisa characterized in the story?

Steinbeck characterizes Elisa as a strong and gifted woman who seems happy enough, but she is vulnerable (as seen by the disposal of her flowers, in essence, the tinker’s betrayal), and she has wishes that would take her away from the life she knows, but it is open only to men, and this may make her feel controlled and …

Who is Elisa Allen What is she doing as the story opens be specific?

Elisa Allen, Henry’s wife, is working in her flower garden and sees her husband speaking with two cigarette-smoking strangers. Elisa is thirty-five years old, attractive and clear-eyed, although at the moment she is clad in a masculine gardening outfit with men’s shoes and a man’s hat.

How does Henry View Elisa?

Henry provides Elisa with a comfortable life (his farming business seems to do well, as he negotiates the sale of thirty head of cattle with representatives from the Western Meat Company at the start of the story) and he appears to be a kind, if traditionally-minded, husband; nevertheless, Elisa is clearly unhappy in …

Why does Elisa cry in the chrysanthemums?

Elisa “cries like an old woman” because she is absolutely crushed because she realizes that she has been duped by the tinker and that he was not interested in her chrysanthemums at all. He had only pretended to be interested in Elisa talking about them in order to get some business from her (some pots to mend).

How does Elisa change in the chrysanthemums?

After the tinker leaves, Elisa bathes, scrubbing herself “with a little block of pumice, legs and thighs, loins and chest and arms, until her skin was scratched and red”(245). Elisa sheds her old self by scrubbing and brings new life and change. She prepares for her night out with her husband.