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The Odour of Chrysanthemums by D.H Lawrence

Plot Summary

                  "The Odour of Chrysanthemums" is a short story by D.H Lawrence. It was written in the autumn of 1909 and after revision was published in 'The English Review' in July 1911.

                    David Herbert Lawrence was an English writer and poet. Lawrence's writing explores issues such as sexuality, emotional health,  vitality,  spontaneity and instinct . His major works include " Sons and Lovers", "The Rainbow ", " Women in Love ", and " Lady Chatterley's Lover" .

                    " The Odour of Chrysanthemums " was written between the end of the Victorian period in 1901 and the beginning of the World War in 1914 . It was a time when England was still a powerful international force and the head of a huge empire that extended from India to Nigeria , which demonstrated England's political power and also provided a vast market for its manufactured goods .

                   " Odour of Chrysanthemums " focuses on a dramatic moment in the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Bates , the accidental death of her husband, Walter Bates. Elizabeth Bates is the main character of the story . She has two young children and is pregnant with a third.  She is waiting for her husband Walter Bates , a coal miner to come home . She thinks he has gone straight to the pub after work and she feels angry but it turns out to be completely different . Because Walter had not come yet so she goes out to search for her husband.  She asks her neighbours for help to search Walter and Mr. Riley goes in search of his missing partner  .

                    After sometime , the man from the mine arrive with Walter's body and now Elizabethan knows for certain that he has died . She shows more concern for her carpet and a smashed vase than she does for the body of her husband. After the men leave , depositing the body in the parlour , but safely away from the carpet , Elizabeth Bates and her mother-in-law begin to wash the body  . Rinsing the dirt from the unmarked body , Elizabeth comes to re-evaluate her husband's worth and their life together, realizing that they never really knew each other and that she might have been to blame for the failure their marriage had become . 

The significance of Chrysanthemums in the tittle 

                    The tittle of the short story " The Odour of Chrysanthemums " . These flowers are present throughout the story as a symbol and they are most of the time described in relation to Elizabeth Bates . She has mixed feelings regarding Chrysanthemums as she relates them to both , disappointing memories and happy events of her life , as the birth of her daughter and the death of her husband . 
                       
                       We can see that she likes the flowers when she broke off a twing with three or four wan flowers and held them against her face or by the simple fact that she has two vases of Chrysanthemums in her house. At the same time, the flowers reminds her of bad events of her life as well , for example when her husband was brought home drunk for the first time and he had brown Chrysanthemums in his button hole . 
             Therefore, these flowers remind her of her daughter's birth as a happy event and husband's death as a bad event , which is the significance of these flowers in the tittle of the short story. 

                      

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