Answer:
In the Chrysanthemums, after the stranger leaves, Elisa feels renewed and empowered. She feels revitalized and reawakened and decides to do something about her otherwise boring and joyless marriage life.
Explanation:
In the Chrysanthemums, after the stranger leaves, Elisa feels renewed and empowered. She feels revitalized and reawakened and decides to do something about her otherwise boring and joyless marriage life. She starts by cleaning and grooming herself to look and feel better. She tears off her dirty gardening clothes, bathes, shaves and scrubs herself clean with pumice stone. She then picks out some of her newest and nicest clothes. including some nice underwear all of which reflects her newfound inner strength and outward feeling of prettiness.
She gets a hot bath ready for her husband. She sets out the clothes that she wants her husband to wear, and she made sure that they are clean and polished in readiness for a romantic night out in the town with her husband.
This newness and strength in Elisa was not lost to her husband who even complimented her on her looks when he says, "You look strong enough to break a calf over your knee, happy enough to eat it like a watermelon". Elisa initially suprised, then agrees that she is strong, when she says, "I never knew before how strong."