“The Odour of Chrysanthemums” by D. H. Lawrence presents
a protagonist who has to face the mistakes that she has made in her life. This happens
at the worst time of her life: the death of her husband. Elizabeth Bates finds that she
does not know who she is or who her husband was.
The author
describes Elizabeth Bates as a tall, handsome woman with striking black eyebrows and
hair. Her family includes her husband Walter, and her two children: Annie and John.
Elizabeth is pregnant with another child.
Elizabeth finds
herself in an unhappy situation. Her husband is a miner. They live in an industrialized
coal mining town where everything seems to be dirty and muddy. They have a house that
Elizabeth works to make nice and clean.
The first sight of
Elizabeth shows her picking a branch of chrysanthemums and smelling them. She holds the
branch next to her cheek and then sticks the branch into her pocket. Obviously,
Elizabeth loves flowers and pretty things.
Something is
wrong with Elizabeth. The author portrays her with these words: disillusioned;
bitterly; determinedly; and irritably. Although she loves her children, Elizabeth
answers them curtly and gives them no affection.
At every
turn, the children seem to annoy her, and she answers them harshly. Early in the story,
Elizabeth gives bread and tea to her father. Elizabeth knows how to nurture. She has
had her fill of her dull, dreary routine.
Walter does not
come home from the mines. Many times, he gets drunk, and then comes home. On this
night Walter is so late that Elizabeth begins to worry.
This happens too often. Even the children are frustrated
with their father. Elizabeth believes that he is at the local pub. He has kept the
family from having their tea and missed supper as well. She feels angry and bitter
toward her husband. After the children are in bed, Elizabeth asks a neighbor to check
on him.
Finally, Walter’s mother comes to her door to tell
her that Walter has been found dead in a mining accident. He was asphyxiated. The
other miners bring him home for the women to clean and prepare the
body.
As Elizabeth works on Walter’s body, she is forced
to face the failure of her marriage. When she looks at Walter’s corpse, Elizabeth
realizes that she never really knew Walter.
She had said he was something that he was not;
she had felt familiar with him. Whereas he was apart all the while, living as she never
lived, feeling as she never felt. In fear and shame, she looked at his naked body, that
she had known falsely.
She
never gave herself over to him other than sexually. Keeping herself distant both
emotionally and intimately added to the shame she feels as she acknowledges to herself
that this was probably the reason that her husband did not want to come home after
work.
Elizabeth recognizes that Walter was never allowed
to be himself. She suddenly feels unmitigated pity for him. He was a human being that
had needs and desires, and she filled none of these for him. Finally, she concludes
that she was responsible for her own unhappiness. Now, he is gone, and it is too
late.
The final view of Elizabeth comes from her tidying
up her kitchen for the company that will be coming. The only thing left for Elizabeth
was to begin to pick up the pieces of her life. Elizabeth has faced death now, and it
is her ultimate master. She must value life and not merely just
exist.
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