The Decision Is Made For You - 1924 Words

When a couple is getting married they say their vows to promise that they will love each other for eternity, no matter what. One cannot guarantee that they will be married forever, or even if they will always love their significant other, although it is hoped for. And what happens when they fall out of love? The situation is terrible but a decision must be made, unless the decision is made for you. In her husband’s death, Elizabeth Bates discovers the truth about her marriage that she had never realized until it was too late, that the marriage had been over long before her husband’s death. She was unhappy in a loveless marriage and it only freed with the death of her husband. The protagonist of â€Å"Odour of Chrysanthemums,† Elizabeth, is†¦show more content†¦She loves her children but she also calls out their flaws that annoy her because she sees her husband in his children. In her son she sees the selfishness that she hates in her husband. At first she appears as the dutiful wife to her husband but she does not love him, although she does not come to this realization until his death. She must not have always been so bitter, as it shows in the beginning of the story with her son, John, when he is picking the chrysanthemums and she tells him to stop because it looks ugly to her but when he does she picks her own flowers to keep, although hesitantly, as if unsure. Her hesitance to pick up the flowers shows that maybe she is unsure or uncomfortable with the feelings that she has, or may have had, with her husband. The gesture suggests that at one point Elizabeth had loved her husband instead of the feelings of anger that she feels today. Wh en she is talking to her daughter, Annie, about the significance of the chrysanthemums, Elizabeth seems as if she has no love at all for the flowers, only disgust, as she feels now with her husband. In the beginning of the marriage, the chrysanthemums represented the happiness and love that they felt for each other when they were married and had their first child but as time passed and their distance grew the chrysanthemums only showed the pain of a loveless marriage that has left Elizabeth bitter. This meaning of the flowers only works