Odour of Chrysanthemums

The titular olfactory imagery of “Odour of Chrysanthemums” embodies many elements of the story: symbolism, particularly in the chrysanthemums themselves; the theme of The Inevitability of Death and Decay, and the tension between Realism and Romanticism.

The chrysanthemums contain elements of both a Realist and a Romantic approach. The vivid description of their scent and appearance offers a detailed image of their physical reality. However, their symbolism (including birth, death, and marriage) is more typical of a Romantic approach, drawing on a tradition of flowers holding meaning that can be found throughout historic English literature, including Shakespeare. This had been recently formalized in the Victorian era in the widespread use of the language of flowers. However, the chrysanthemums do not fare well in the story—they are wilting as fall progresses; John tears the flowers down and throws them to the floor; and a collier knocks over the vase, spilling them into a mess. In these moments, the harsh reality of the real world, with its decay, destructiveness, and accidents, prevails over untainted Romanticism.

The subject matter of the story is typical of literary Realism and specifically Social Realism, portraying life in a mining community to delve into The Reality of Labor. Lawrence establishes this setting clearly and with verisimilitude in his use of regional dialect in the dialogue, using regional slang in both dialogue and narration—for example, in Elizabeth’s conversation with her father, a “bout” is a drinking session, and to “mash” is to prepare tea (3). The story depicts the intensity of the industrial labor in these communities, the inherent danger of the work, and the precariousness of existence. Fearing her husband’s death, Elizabeth’s first response is trying to work out how to survive the loss of income. Lawrence uses descriptive verisimilitude to paint this world in vivid detail, leaning into the broader literary tradition of Realism. The simplicity of the narrative, set chronologically over a single evening, also has an austere, practical quality to it, mirroring Elizabeth’s approach to life.

Walter’s mother, however, has a very different outlook from Elizabeth. She is constantly expressing heightened emotions (for example, fear or grief) in contrast to Elizabeth’s stoicism. She romanticizes her son, dwelling on his good qualities in his youth and his physical appearance. She even romanticizes his death, convinced that he must have died at peace: “Isn’t he beautiful, the lamb? Ay—he must ha’ made his peace” (21). This is in stark contrast to the realism of the workers’ horror at how he died and the doctor’s blunt description of it: “’Sphyxiated, […] It is the most terrible job I’ve ever known. […] Clean overhim, an’ shut ’im in, like a mouse-trap” (21). Walter’s mother frequently seems unaware of the physical realities of the world around her, living in a more emotional realm—she fails to hear the foreboding sound of the winding engine as she chatters about Walter, and she moans loudly in her grief without thinking of how this could affect Walter’s children if they wake and see the body. Elizabeth and the colliers again contrast with this, trying to silence her and focusing on the practical task of getting the body into the parlor.

The embodiment of Romantic literary traditions in an older character suggests those traditions are dying out, at odds with the modern world. Elizabeth is able to see a beauty in her husband’s dead body that she could not see when living in the harsh reality of their relationship: “He was a man of handsome body, and his face showed no traces of drink. He was blonde, full-fleshed, with fine limbs. But he was dead” (20). This suggests that Romanticism disguises reality—his destructive drinking habits are invisible—and is not reflective of real, everyday life. Ultimately, it is useless to Elizabeth—Walter is dead.

Elizabeth is not the narrator as the story is told in the third person, but much of the narrative is from her point of view. This is crucial in how the story explores the theme of social alienation, as the crux of the narrative is her internal response to her husband’s death: the realization of their deep estrangement and her horror at the depth of her isolation and the inevitability of death. The climactic scene of the body being brought in is the inciting incident to this. This third-person insight into her inner dialogue does, however, have some features of a classic unreliable narrator. Her initial assumptions about where Walter is are incorrect, and during her emotional upheaval once Walter’s body is brought back, she swings between warring ideas around the nature of their estrangement. Sometimes, she feels responsible; sometimes, she blames them both; and sometimes, she implies that isolation is a universal feature of the human condition: “[S]he had denied him what he was” (22); “[T]hey had denied each other in life” (22); She “felt the utter isolation of the human soul” (20). This invites the reader to consider the causes and nature of Social Alienation.

Lawrence explores several possible factors in Elizabeth’s feelings of social alienation. One of these is her awareness of death as the force that has completed the separation between her and Walter and something that humans ultimately face alone: “He was dead, and her living flesh had no place against his” (21). Another is the harsh reality of their labor-intensive life, leading to frustration with each other and a disregard for emotional connection in the face of practical challenges—and probably the cause of Walter’s drinking as a means of escape. Elizabeth only notes the distinct physical features and handsomeness of his body once she has washed the grime of the colliery from him, showing how the world of labor has stifled his vitality and individuality and depersonalized their relationship.

Walter’s manner of death highlights these forces—he is trapped by a collapse in the mine shaft, slowly suffocating alone. This physically embodies the idea of entrapment in poverty and exploitation. The fact that it is literally the colliery he works for that has trapped him symbolizes the way he and Elizabeth—and the rest of the colliery community—are trapped in a constant cycle of dangerous, demanding labor. He was not physically hurt in this accident, so he would have been awake as he waited to die, a terribly real example of Elizabeth’s awareness of death’s inevitability. The fact that this event happens in parallel to the narrative chronologically but is not shown further underlines the theme of alienation; the reader follows Elizabeth’s evening and her frustration at her husband staying out, and it is only later that she and the reader share the discovery that during that time, he was dying alone. This disturbing dramatic irony underscores Elizabeth’s realizations in the closing pages, bringing the reader into her horror and enhancing the key themes of social alienation, the reality of labor, and death and decay.