A careful reading of the story reveals the way in which
the title of this excellent story relates to Elizabeth's gradual awareness of the true
nature of her relationship with her husband. We are told early on in the story that she
has associated the scent of the withering but colourful and beautiful chrysanthemums
with the stages of her relationship with her husband. She says to her children that in
her relationship with her father she has been a "fool." It is only after her husband's
death that she comes to realise that the smell from these flowers is really the scent of
death. Just as she realises that the odour of the chrysanthemums is related to death, so
she comes to realise when she cleans her husband's body the essential and massive
difference that lies between them which could never be
bridged.
The change in Elizabeth's perceptions of the odour
of the flowers thus is explicitly related to Elizabeth's changing understanding of the
difference between her husband and herself, and her recognition of the essential
differences between them, both based on gender and social class.
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