Odour of Chrysanthemums: Part 1 Summary & Analysis

In the afternoon's dimming light, a small train passes through town, slowly enough for a horse to outrun it at a canter. A woman waits for it to pass, trapped between the moving train and the hedge. Just beyond the train is the Brinsley Colliery, where miners are leaving after a day of work, like "shadows diverging home." Nearby, there's a small cottage with a disheveled garden of apple trees, cabbages, and a path of chrysanthemums. A woman appears from the fowl-house, standing tall.

The woman is attractive, with exactly parted black hair and dark eyebrows. She calls for John, but there's no answer; finally, a child's sulky voice sounds from among the bushes. The five-year-old boy appears, standing stubbornly still. The mother gently urges him to come indoors as it's getting dark, and his grandfather's engine is coming down the line.

The boy is surly, advancing slowly in clothes that are evidently cut down from a grown man's clothing. He pulls at the chrysanthemums on the path, scattering the petals, and his mother tells him to stop because it looks nasty. Suddenly, feeling sorry, she breaks off a sprig of the fading flowers, holds them against her face, and tucks them into her apron-band. As they stand at the foot of the steps, the mother and son watch the miners pass on their way home, and the small train moves past the house and stops opposite the gate.

The engine driver, the woman's father, leans out of the cab over the woman and asks cheerily if she has a cup of tea. She goes inside to prepare the tea and returns, and a brief exchange between her and her father ensues. He begins to explain why he didn't visit last Sunday, but she interrupts to suggest that she already knows that he remarried and didn't expect him. She expresses some disapproval at how quickly he remarried, but her father defends himself by saying that it's no life for a man of his age to sit alone by the hearth.

The woman brings out the tea and some bread and butter. Her father sips the tea appreciatively and mentions that he heard news of Walter spending his money at the ‘Lord Nelson,' to which the woman responds bitterly, saying that the news is very likely true.

The woman's father leaves, and she continues to watch the miners returning home. After a while, the woman—Elizabeth Bates—turns to go inside. Her husband doesn't come. Inside, the table is set for tea, but it can't begin until her husband returns. She watches John, seeing herself in his silence and determination and seeing her husband in the boy's self-absorption. Elizabeth imagines that her husband has probably slunk past the house to drink at a pub while his dinner spoils on the table. As she strains the potatoes in the garden, she once again watches the miners passing by, their numbers growing fewer.

As the fire dies down, Elizabeth places a batter pudding by the hearth and waits. A young girl with blonde curls enters the door, taking off her winter coat. Elizabeth chides her for coming home late, but the girl responds that the lantern is not yet lit and her father isn't home yet. Elizabeth asks the girl whether she's seen her father, and the girl responds that she hasn't. She adds that he can't have passed the house because she didn't see him. Elizabeth responds bitterly that he would have taken care not to let the girl see him and that he must be at the "Prince o' Wales" or else he wouldn't be so late. The girl suggests that they have their teas.

Elizabeth glances outside once more. Everything is deserted. The girl sits before the fire, commenting on how beautiful it is. Her mother replies that the fire needs mending and that her husband will complain the house isn't warm enough when he comes. She bitterly adds that a pub is always warm enough. The boy complains to the girl, Annie, that she isn't making the fire quickly enough, and their mother scolds him.

As the children eat, Elizabeth drinks her tea with determination, growing angrier. In an outburst, she says that she doesn't know why she should wait for him with his dinner when he walks past their home to go to a pub. She drops coals on the fire until the room is almost entirely dark, and John complains that he can't see. Elizabeth laughs at him, but lights the lamp that hangs in the middle of the room.

As Elizabeth lights the lamp, revealing her pregnant stomach, Annie catches sight of the chrysanthemums in her mother's waistband, exclaiming on their beauty. She goes to smell the flowers, commenting on how beautiful they smell. Her mother gives a short laugh and disagrees, saying that chrysanthemums were present when she married their father, when Annie was born, and when others first brought home their drunk father. Elizabeth bitterly rails against their father before going to clear the table. The children play silently, fearing their mother's wrath at their father's homecoming.

Elizabeth sews as the children play, and her anger eventually wears out. The children tire of playing as well, and their mother announces that it's time for bed. Annie complains that her father isn't home yet, but her mother says that they'll bring him when they bring him, and there won't be a scene.

The children quietly prepare for bed, and Elizabeth feels anger towards her husband for causing her and the children such distress. After the children are in bed, Elizabeth continues to sew, and her anger becomes tinged with fear.