Lesson-3--Odour-of-Chrysanthemums-by-D-H-Lawrence--(Part-2).docx

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Lesson 3: ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ by D. H. Lawrence (Part 2)

1. SYMBOLISM

What is a symbol?

Symbolism is often used by writers to enhance their writing. Symbolism can give a literary work more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work deeper.  

A/an _____________, ____________, ____________ or situation that, charged with meaning, suggests another thing.

Writers use symbols because they want readers to perceive – at least faintly – that certain characters or objects or actions or situations / settings have certain implications, stand for something more than what they are on surface.

Symbols are actually everywhere to be found. They form a part of our lives:

Symbolic meaning:

authority, power, aggression
Symbolic meaning:
change, America, power

Symbolic meaning:
love, romance, marriage, women
Symbolic meaning:
friendship, peace, negotiation

- Same symbol can mean different things at the same time
- Meaning depends on the context (where & when it is used)
- Depends also on different cultures

How do we look for symbols in a literary text?

- Repeated a lot
- Stand out from other images
- Put in the climax of the story
- Put in the title

Discussion question: What are the symbolic meanings of chrysanthemums?

“Beside the path hung dishevelled pink chrysanthemums, like pink cloths hung on bushes. A woman came stooping out of the felt-covered fowl-house, half-way down the garden. She closed and padlocked the door, then drew herself erect, having brushed some bits from her white apron. (para. 3)

“As they went slowly towards the house he tore at the ragged wisps of chrysanthemums and dropped the petals in handfuls along the path.”

“He refrained, and she, suddenly pitiful, broke off a twig with three or four wan flowers and held them against her face. When mother and son reached the yard her hand hesitated, and instead of laying the flower aside, she pushed it in her apron-band.” (para. 14-15)

“Go along, silly!” said the mother, turning up the lamp. The light revealed their suspense so that the woman felt it almost unbearable. Annie was still bending at her waist. Irritably, the mother took the flowers out from her apron-band.

“Oh, mother — don’t take them out!” Annie cried, catching her hand and trying to replace the sprig.

“Such nonsense!” said the mother, turning away. The child put the pale chrysanthemums to her lips, murmuring:

“Don’t they smell beautiful!”

Her mother gave a short laugh.

“No,” she said, “not to me. It was chrysanthemums when I married him, and chrysanthemums when you were born, and the first time they ever brought him home drunk, he’d got brown chrysanthemums in his button-hole.” (para. 71-76)

“…on the two vases that held some of the pink chrysanthemums, and on the dark mahogany. There was a cold, deathly smell of chrysanthemums in the room.” (para. 167)

“One of the men had knocked off a vase of chrysanthemums. He stared awkwardly, then they set down the stretcher. Elizabeth did not look at her husband. As soon as she could get in the room, she went and picked up the broken vase and the flowers.” (para. 177)

Chrysanthemums

2. LITERARY THEORY - FEMINISM

What is feminist criticism?

Women continue to search for their own ______________ and ____________:
– fought for freeing slaves and then for freeing women.
– fought for suffrage rights.
– After WW II, women fought to continue working once troops came home.
– Women continue to fight for and debate specific women’s issues:
• Should a mother work outside the home?
• Should women have the right to abort?
• How can women protect themselves from domestic abuse?
• Exploring these issues is often possible when examining literature closely.
• Feminist criticism is “concerned… with the status of women” (Lynn 229).

Feminist critics believe that…

• We live in a _
• _________________________ (adj.) describes a general structure in which men have power over women. Society (n.) is the entirety of relations of a community. A patriarchal society consists of a male-dominated power structure throughout organized society and in individual relationships.

Feminism’s goals

• Change the degrading view of women
• Help make all women realize that they are “significant”
• Make all women see that each woman is a valuable person possessing the same privileges and rights as every man
• Women must define their voices
• Hope to create a society in which the female voice is valued equally with the male

How do you apply feminist criticism to the study of literature?

1. How students view female characters and deal with the author’s treatment of those characters
2. How students evaluate the significance of the female in terms of her influence on the literary work
3. How students interpret and manipulate patterns in text, especially with the treatment of women

Application of Feminism in ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’

_________________________________________________ is a result of the power structure of the patriarchal society
• She is _____________________ to being a caring wife and loving mother, there are no other opportunities.
• Men – work as miners in the story, financial pillars
• Women – tied up by domestic duties: take care of kids, sewing, prepare meals and are expected to wash the pit-dirt of the husbands, cannot do anything with drunken husbands and the men going to pubs and ignoring family, rely on men to earn money for the family (“He gives me 33 shrillings!”)
• Expected to make “allowances” (to indulge them in some unacceptable behavior), just like what Elizabeth’s mother-in-law says
• Women are not in the position to take initiatives to solve the issue of unhappy marriage. They are physically, mentally and financially dependent on men.
• The distance, misunderstanding and separation between men and women cannot be bridged as Elizabeth fails to uphold her social position and maintain respectable appearances.
• By marrying a miner, she has no choice but to remain in the working class, however dissatisfied she is.

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