A Rose for Emily and the Chrysanthemums

A rose for Emily is a short story authored by William Faulkner; it gives a story of a woman who resides in the southern town of Jefferson. In this story the author brings about boldness of Emily in order to show that there are outcomes that one has to accept in life or else one ends up making tragic decisions and hence ends up being a law breaker. The Chrysanthemums is also a short story written by John Steinbeck in the collection The Long Valley.  In This story Elisa is presented as a woman with more promising hopes which have been elevated by a stranger she meets. Her character changes when the stranger leaves her. Her real self is portrayed since she becomes bitter, and lives a life which is not fulfilled, which is boring and her hope crashes. In this essay I will compare and contrast the two characters of Elisa and miss Emily which will give out the strengths of each.  Both stories therefore shows the story of two women who are separated from the world.

Miss Emily lives for many years as a loner, she has withdrawn from her community in order to live in seclusion. The story clearly shows that the decision to live in seclusion is her own. "After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all" (395). The author points out that she lives in seclusion without anyone having to visit her. "No visitor had passed since she ceased giving china-painting lessons eight or ten years earlier" (394). This seclusion can therefore be attributed to her father's death and being left by her partner. It can also be associated with the with her pride since the author writes that no single man was best for her. His father also had chased many men away who had tried to seek a hand in marriage to her. Emily portrays her boldness which is a weakness by poisoning Hormer Baron. This was due to her desire for companionship. She could not expose her feelings to Hormer because of her pride and hence she ended up killing him. Her pride was displayed in her actions, words and feelings. In this story the consequences of pride are seen as heroic isolation which led to bloodthirsty madness.

In the chrysanthemums, Elisa Allen is an interesting, intelligent, and passionate woman who lives an unproductive, under inspired life. She's disillusioned at every part of her life. She is not in professional career, has no children, her interest in ranch is not  noticed, her offer to help her husband to ranch are met with  arrogance, and her wish to see the world is met with opposition . Therefore , Elisa devotes  her energy to maintain the garden and the house. Her pride in housekeeping is exaggerated and downhearted. Although she precisely brags about her green thumb,  Her relationship to nature is unnatural and nothing comes naturally as she claims. She has ample knowledge about plants.

Due to frustrations in her life, she looks for Tinker in order to get stimulating conversation and also sex which seems to lack in her life. Her bodily draw to  Tinker , her enticing, amusing chat with him bring out the best to her, this turns her to a poet. Her brief flashes of luminosity in tinker's existence shows us the way she is thinking and feeling and how she doesn't know how to express herself. When the existence of physical and mental fulfillment of tinker disappears, her desolation shows her dissatisfaction in her marriage. She's so desperate to go beyond the level of being a woman that she seeks a getaway, trying to tease with her husband, asking for wine and dinner with him, and even being interested in fights that even men are not interested in. nothing seems to satisfy Elisa but the book it is evident that at one point she will find satisfaction.

After close examining the characters of Elisa in the Chrysanthemums and Miss Emily in A rose for Emily, these two characters have been portrayed as lonely women who lacks the power to express their feelings and hence they ends up solitude and isolation. Though they both appear strong, Emily seems stronger since she shows her strength in her aggressiveness to kill her lover. They are both also product of gender problems since were it not for Emily's father may be Emily could have not become a loner.  The suffering that Elisa suffers result from his husband neglect hence, when Tinker pays attention to her she becomes strong and confident. Men have also helped the two ladies identify their autonomy.