The New Dress Character Analysis

Two short stories titled, “The Chrysanthemums” and “The New Dress” have two main characters that are dealing with some type of conflict. In “The New Dress” by Virginia Woolf, Mabel, the main character, is dealing with issues related to her self-esteem. Her self esteem issues begin when she arrives at a party with her new dress and believes that all the women are gossiping about her thinking, “…oh these women, all were thinking-“What’s Mabel wearing? What a fright she looks! What a hideous new dress!” (Woolf). The main character Elisa in “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is dealing with internal issues and issues with her husband. Between the two stories and the two main characters they are both similar, for example they both are dealing …show more content…
As I stated I the paragraph before, both characters are dealing with conflicts. Mabel from the story, “The New Dress” is dealing with self-esteem issues. She talks about herself stating that, “I feel like some dowdy, decrepit, horribly dingy old fly” (Woolf). She gets this analogy about herself from Shakespeare books she used to read. Elisa from the story, “The Chrysanthemums” is dealing with conflicts with her husband and herself. Both conflicts that Elisa has feed off each other. Elisa does not really like her husband’s opinions. He complimented her on looking nice and she comes back and questions him saying, “Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by ‘nice’?” (Steinbeck). Elisa herself is a little like Mabel, because she is insecure in her own way. Another example that shows the two characters are alike is that they seem to both be living a life that they are not satisfied with. While Elisa is talking with the man she met, she makes a comment about how she wishes women could sleep in a wagon like he does. She states, “It must be very nice. I wish women could do such things” (Steinbeck). Mabel on the other hand is insecure about how she lives her