Odour of Chrysanthemums Family Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

"Come, come on in," she said more gently, "it's getting dark. There's your grandfather's engine coming down the line!" (1.12)

This story is very heavy on emphasizing family relationships in discussing/describing characters. For example, grandpa never gets a name; we just know that he's Elizabeth's father and John's grandfather.

Quote #2

It was her father. She went in, saying she would mash. Directly, she returned.

"I didn't come to see you on Sunday," began the little grey-bearded man.

"I didn't expect you," said his daughter.

The engine-driver winced; then, reassuming his cheery, airy manner, he said: "Oh, have you heard then? Well, and what do you think—?"

"I think it is soon enough," she replied.

At her brief censure the little man made an impatient gesture, and said coaxingly, yet with dangerous coldness: "Well, what's a man to do? It's no sort of life for a man of my years, to sit at my own hearth like a stranger. And if I'm going to marry again it may as well be soon as late—what does it matter to anybody?" (1.18-25)

We're not quite sure what's going on here, but it sounds like father and daughter are at odds about some decision the former has made. It seems like perhaps he is thinking about remarrying? Apparently, he doesn't enjoy sitting home alone—and we can't say we blame him. Note, too, that neither one of them is referred to by name; they are only "his daughter" and "her father."

Quote #3

It was half-past four. They had but to await the father's coming to begin tea. As the mother watched her son's sullen little struggle with the wood, she saw herself in his silence and pertinacity; she saw the father in her child's indifference to all but himself. She seemed to be occupied by her husband. (1.36)

This passage is just chock-full of examples of Lawrence's tendency to avoid names and instead identify people by their family relationships. It's so excessive here that it really forces you to consider what Lawrence achieves through these choices—why is he so insistent on draining his characters of individuality/boiling them down to their family roles?