Yellow Chrysanthemum Symbol Analysis

The yellow chrysanthemum in “The Singing Lesson” symbolizes youthful joy. Each day at the start of class, star music student Mary Beazley gives Miss Meadows a flower, and on the day of the story, it’s a yellow chrysanthemum. While Miss Meadows has always accepted Mary’s flowers, on this day Miss Meadows refuses it. Chrysanthemums bloom in autumn, and the flower’s association with this season evokes the dissonance between Mary’s youthful optimism and Miss Meadows’ despair over her advancing age. For a young girl like Mary, the fall is a time of joy and excitement—she has just started a new school year and can look forward to new experiences and opportunities. For Miss Meadows, however, the fall (with its miserable cold and its dying leaves) reminds her of her diminished hopes for the future and her inevitable march towards old age. Therefore, while Mary sees the flower as a kind gesture, Miss Meadows sees its autumnal symbolism as rubbing salt in her wounds. Her rejection of the flower shows her inability to see herself as youthful or optimistic—after all, her engagement has just ended, and, at thirty years old, her prospects for finding another fiancé are limited. It’s significant, however, that once Miss Meadows’s engagement is renewed, she returns to her classroom and holds the flower while joyfully singing a song about summer. The dissonance between holding a fall flower while singing a summer song echoes the dissonance between Miss Meadows’ happiness over her engagement and the obvious reality that her fiancé doesn’t love her and their marriage is doomed.