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Odour

 

            
             Their daughter--coming home from school in the late evening light. Note how the young girl almost notices her mother's pregnancy, but instead draws attention to the flowers stuck in her mother's apron. To the daughter's statement that the chrysanthemums smell beautiful, the mother replies, "No. Not to me. It was chrysanthemums when I married him, and chrysanthemums when you were born, and the first time they ever brought him home drunk, he'd got chrysanthemums in his buttonhole" (Lawrence 1806).feelings of characters. In the beginning The chrysanthemums are like Elizabeth's husband, who is never truly noticed until he is dead. She takes the chrysanthemums for granted, just like she takes her husband for granted. Th chrysanthemums also express decay in short stories. When the moment of epiphany occurs, there is a sudden shock: Elizabeth discovers she never really knew who her husband was and is also a faillure. The perfectness of nature is in contrast with the imperfectness of man. elements of nature, a pear tree and chrysanthemums, are used as symbols. They can express and clearify properties or feelings of characters.
             In "Odour of Chrysanthemums" Elizabeth Bates takes the chrysanthemums, common flowers that are found all over Britain, for granted just like she takes her husband for granted. Elizabeth Bates, unlike her daughter Annie, does not appreciate the chrysanthemums: "No, [the chrysanthemums do not smell beautiful]" she said, "not to me. It was chrysanthemums .
             when I married him, chrysanthemums when you were born, and the first time they ever brought him home drunk, he had chrysanthemums in his buttonhole". In "Odour of Chrysanthemums" there is also a moment of epiphany when Elizabeth's husband is dead and she realizes she never really appreciated him for the man he was, because she never really knew him and she feels ashamed. It is only when her dead husband is carried into the tiny room and the vase with chrysanthemums is knocked down that she really notices the flowers, just like she notices her husband when he is dead and naked.


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