Elisa of The Chrysanthemums :: The Chrysanthemums Essays

â€Å"Why-why Elisa†¦. You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon.† (Steinbeck 232) Most people reading this would just pass it off as a tactless man’s attempt to compliment, but is that all it is? In â€Å"The Chrysanthemums†, Elisa is a farm wife, whose only passion in life is found in her gardening. Henry, her husband, owns a farm and is oblivious to the monotony of Elisa’s life. Throughout the story, Henry is on the outside, never really understanding Elisa and how she feels. Until, a tinker comes by the farm and speaks with Elisa about her Chrysanthemums. By asking just one question, the tinker opens Elisa and allows her to release the passion and femininity that she keeps hidden throughout her life. In John Steinbeck’s â€Å"The Chrysanthemums†, Henry Allen’s seemingly inept comment is not just that but an allusion, put in place by Steinbeck, to the Dionysian maenads. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, merrymaking and gathering. His followers, the maenads, were said to be pushed into some form of â€Å"divine madness†, aided by wine, which would lead to prophecy and insight. More often, however, it led to drunkenness and promiscuity. They would then dance, sing and wander about, not to mention, join in sexual activities to stimulate fertility of the earth and achieve ecstasy. The maenads would occasionally reach a dangerous â€Å"frenzied state† where if they happened across it, they would â€Å"tear animals apart and devour the raw flesh† (â€Å"Maenads† par.1). So, knowing that, we take a second look at our story. Elisa Allen has had an erotic experience with the tinker by merely speaking of the passion she has for her chrysanthemums that has opened her eyes to how much of herself that she hides and subdues. Henry notices a difference in Elisa, beyond the way she is dressed, but he has never seen the passionate side of her and does not know what to say. When Henry claims that Elisa looks strong enough to kill and eat a cow, Steinbeck is making an allusion to the maenads of the ancient Greek world. David Leon Higdon, a scholar, claims that â€Å"With this image†¦Steinbeck transforms the characters and the ranch, synchronizing empirical and mythical realities, and identifying Elisa's new power and beauty with those of the Maenads or Bacchantes in their worship of Dionysus† (par. 1). It is quite clear that Henry’s comment is more than just that. â€Å"It is as if Steinbeck wished his reader to feel, for one brief moment, that he or she had opened a door inappropriately and