The Chrysanthemums | Themes

Limitations and Opportunities
The most discussed theme in ‘‘The Chrysanthemums’’ is limitations—the limitations under which a married woman lives. The idea of limitation or confinement is presented as the story opens: ''The high gray-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot.’’ Within this closed pot, Elisa operates within even narrower confines. The house she shares with Henry is enclosed ''with red geraniums...

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