# Elsa Wertman explained — Spoon River Anthology > Chapter companion for Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters. ## What happens Elsa Wertman, a German peasant girl, recounts her experience working for Thomas Greene, who sexually assaulted her. She became pregnant, and Mrs. Greene, who was childless, adopted the child to conceal the affair. Elsa later married Gus Wertman, but at political rallies, she silently yearns to acknowledge that the eloquent speaker, Hamilton Greene, is her son. ## Themes in this chapter ### Hypocrisy and Corruption Thomas Greene's abuse of power and the subsequent cover-up, including bribing his wife with a farm, expose the moral corruption beneath respectable appearances. ### Unfulfilled Lives and Repression Elsa's lifelong silence and repressed desire to acknowledge her son at political rallies illustrate a life of unfulfilled longing and emotional suppression. ## Character check-ins ### Thomas Greene Thomas Greene is the employer who sexually assaults Elsa Wertman and later gives his wife a farm to keep silent about the affair. ## Key lines > He stole into the kitchen and took me Right in his arms and kissed me on my throat, I turning my head. Then neither of us Seemed to know what happened. He entered the kitchen and forcibly embraced and kissed me, and afterward we both acted as if nothing had occurred. _Describes the assault and the subsequent denial of its significance._ > But—at political rallies when sitters-by thought I was crying At the eloquence of Hamilton Greene— That was not it. No! I wanted to say: That’s my son! That’s my son! At political rallies, onlookers believe I am moved by Hamilton Greene's speech, but in truth I am weeping because I long to declare that he is my son. _Reveals Elsa's hidden anguish and her unfulfilled desire to publicly claim her child._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/elsa-wertman - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters