Critical materials: On a Passage from Lawrence's 'Odour of Chrysanthemums'

From Walter Nash, Language and Literature: An Introductory Reader in Stylistics, ed., Ron Carter (George Allen and Unwin, 1982), pp. 100-120. We would like to thank Walter Nash and Ron Carter for permission to republish this article.

Contents

I A Sample Text

Intuitive response to D. H. Lawrence's classic story 'Odour of Chrysanthemums' suggests that its theme might be defined in the one word alienation. A woman is alienated from her husband, and this is the major issue; but it includes or is contingent upon other alienations – family relationships are strained, a housewife is uneasy among her neighbours, man is a mere tenant in his industrial environment. These paradigmatic variants of the general theme are explored cumulatively in a series of episodes any one of which would provide a representative stylistic sample.

One such short sample text, perfectly defined and self-contained, occurs shortly after the beginning of the narrative. The following notes take into account the general patterning of the text as a narrative framework, the structuring of its content, and the relevance of stylistic device to structural intention. My metalanguage, except where otherwise indicated (and apart from ad hoc terms) is based on Randolph Quirk et al, eds., A Grammar of Contemporary English (Longman, 1972). Lines from the excerpt from the story are numbered for convenience in subsequent reference:

Line number	Line from text
1	The engine whistled as it came into the wide bay of
2	railway lines beside the colliery, where rows of trucks
3	stood in harbour.
4	Miners, single, trailing and in groups, passed like
5	shadows diverging home. At the edge of the ribbed
6	level of sidings squats a low cottage, three steps down
7	from the cinder track. A large bony vine clutched at
8	the house, as if to claw down the tiled roof. Round
9	the bricked yard grew a few wintry primroses. Beyond,
10	the long garden sloped down to a bush-covered brook
11	course. There were some twiggy apple-trees, winter-
12	crack trees, and ragged cabbages. Beside the path
13	hung dishevelled pink chrysanthemums, like pink cloths
14	hung on bushes. A woman came stooping out of the
15	felt-covered fowl-house, then drew herself erect,
16	having brushed some bits from her white apron.
17	She was a tall woman of imperious mien, handsome,
18	with definite black eyebrows. Her smooth black hair
19	was parted exactly. For a few moments she stood
20	steadily watching the miners as they passed along the
21	railway; then she turned towards the brook course.
22	Her face was calm and set, her mouth was closed with
23	disillusionment. After a moment she called:
24	'John!' There was no answer. She waited, and
25	then said distinctly:
26	'Where are you?'
27	'Here!' replied a child's sulky voice from among
28	the bushes. The woman looked piercingly through the
29	dusk.
30	'Are you at that brook?' she asked sternly.
31	For answer the child showed himself before the
32	raspberry-canes that rose like whips. He was a
33	small, sturdy boy of five. He stood quite still,
34	defiantly.
35	'Oh!' said the mother, conciliated. 'I thought
36	you were down at that wet brook - and you remember
37	what I told you -'
38	The boy did not move or answer.
39	'Come, come on in,' she said more gently, 'it's
40	getting dark. There's your grandfather's engine
41	coming down the line!'
42	The lad advanced slowly, with resentful, taciturn
43	movement. He was dressed in trousers and waistcoat
44	of cloth that was too thick and hard for the size of
45	the garments. They were evidently cut down from a
46	man's clothes.
47	As they went towards the house he tore at the
48	ragged wisps of chrysanthemums and dropped the petals
49	in handfuls along the path.
50	'Don't do that - it does look nasty,' said his
51	mother. He refrained, and she, suddenly pitiful,
52	broke off a twig with three or four wan flowers and
53	held them against her face. When mother and son
54	reached the yard her hand hesitated, and instead of
55	laying the flower aside, she pushed it in her apron-
56	band. The mother and son stood at the foot of the
57	three steps looking across the bay of lines at the
58	passing home of the miners. The trundle of the small
59	train was imminent. Suddenly the engine loomed past
60	the house and came to a stop opposite the gate.