SOURCE: “The Original Manuscripts of Steinbeck's ‘The Chrysanthemums’,” in Steinbeck Quarterly, Vol. VII, Nos. 3–4, Summer-Fall, 1974, pp. 102–11.

In the following essay, Simmonds argues that Elisa Allen, contrary to popular opinion, is not a sympathetic figure.

In recent years what has almost amounted to a small critical industry has grown up around Steinbeck's short story, “The Chrysanthemums.” It is obvious that this particular story has attracted a more than average share of expository attention due principally to the various interpretations which can be placed upon the behaviour of its central character, Elisa Allen, and upon the somewhat ambiguous relationship which seems to exist between Elisa and her husband, Henry. Surveys of these disparate interpretations have already been provided in Elizabeth E. McMahan's “‘The Chrysanthemums’: Study of a Woman's Sexuality”¹ and William V. Miller's more recent essay, “Sexual and Spiritual Ambiguity in “The Chrysanthemums',”² and it is not my intent here...