Similarities Between The Horse Dealer's Daughter And The Chrysanthemums

Throughout our short story study, while reading The Horse Dealer’s Daughter and The Chrysanthemums, we found a deep and significant relationship between the two women and main characters in the stories; Mabel and Elisa. These characters both experience similar, yet difficult situations within their own families, their relationships in the society, and the power they both lack and possess over their own affairs.

There are many times where Mabel and Elisa’s relationships and roles within their families affect their personalities, decisions, thoughts and character traits within each story. Elisa’s family only consists of her husband Henry, who she shares a distant relationship with, and which allows her to be the main focus, or ‘powerhouse’

Within the society of The Chrysanthemums, Elisa is a very strong and independent woman, who is also very neat and organized in the work that she does. These attributes all contribute to her great personality, but allows for some separation from the ideal figure of women in society. Evidence of Elisa’s dignified and separated personality is when Steinbeck goes on about her over-powerful and mature nature on page 1 and 2 of The Chrysanthemums; “Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.” (Steinbeck, 1-2). As for Mabel, within the society she is considered a nervous, depressed and isolated woman, who has been forced to labour over her brothers since her parents are gone, and the society/community has not helped her to see her inner beauty and strength. With this in mind, we can see that in her eyes, Mabel’s only way to find happiness is by finding someone to love (her). Mabel’s need and desperateness for someone to love (her) is pretty frequent and conscious throughout The Horse Dealer’s Daughter, although it is sometimes hard to see how isolated and separated Mabel is from the society, not just her family. Evidence of these feelings are shown when Lawrence exclaims; “She thought of nobody, not even of herself. Mindless and persistent, she seemed in a sort of ecstasy to be coming nearer to her fulfilment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified.” (Lawrence,8). Throughout both stories, Elisa and Mabel show separation and isolation from society and their “roles,” but each express their separation in a different way. For Mabel, she is separated/isolated from society because she has no parental influence to guide her, and she is