Industrial Corruption: The Main Culprit for the Relationship Between Husband and Wife in "Odour of Chrysanthemums"/Corruption Industrielle: Le Coupable Principal de la Mauvaise Relation Conjugale Dans Odour of Chrysanthemums (Report‪)‬

Lawrence, in his novel writing, is chiefly concerned with human relationships, and with the relation of the self to other selves. He probes into various aspects of relationship--the relationship between man and his environment ,the relationship of man to God and to nature, the relationship between parent and child , the relationship between man and woman , the relationship between instinct and intellect , and the proper basis for the marriage relationship . In his opinion, the most important relationship is the one between man and woman ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IM ASCCI.] : 407). "Odor of Chrysanthemums" is one of his short stories. The story takes place in a mining country, and its central character, Elizabeth Bates, starts the story as a collier's wife and ends it as a collier's widow. The story builds slowly and powerfully as Elizabeth waits anxiously for her husband, Walter, to come home after working all day in the mines. He is very late, and when he is not among the weary miners trooping past "in grey somber groups," Elizabeth assumes that he is out getting drunk with his mates. "Never mind," she tells her daughter, "they'll bring him when he does come--like a log." But Elizabeth's anger is "tinged with fear," for of course coal mines are dangerous, and accidents are common. Elizabeth's fear is confirmed, for that day her husband is killed in the mines: "He was smothered," as one man explains.