A critical analysis and a contrast of James Joyce's story
'The Dead' in Dubliners and D. H. Lawrence's story
'Odour of Chrysanthemums'.
Edson Siquara de Souza
2016
The ´Odour of Chrysanthemums´ from D. H. Lawrence and ´The Dead´ from James Joyce
are both short stories written at about the same period of time, the first in 1909 and the latter in
1914. On both plots feelings of loneliness, unhappiness and unfulfilled life are coupled with death,
forming a similar structure that can be captured and seem as portraying the same message. Here I
am going to argue that both short stories are centered in the feelings of loneliness and emptiness
that results from the lack of knowledge that each couple, formed by the main characters on both
plots, have about each other. It will follow from the argument that both couples should have built a
relationship that would be supportive and happier for both of them if they could only have known
one another better. In a relationship, as we get from the stories, if man and woman decide not to
be completely open to one another they would find themselves in a trajectory for misunderstands
and unhappiness. I am also going to describe the different strategies that each author uses to
develop this idea and how this can affect the reading of the plots.
Joyce uses a male as the main character of his story, Gabriel Conroy, while Lawrence uses
a female, Elizabeth Bates, which throughout the plot indicates her sadness because of a husband
that is always drunk and absent, having to take care of two children and concerned about a third
that is to come besides living in a very poor environment. The first half of the plot is a description of
the way of life miners and their families have, miserable and unfortunate, which Lawrence chooses
to describe through the eyes of Elizabeth. Conroy, on the other hand, is a successful university
professor living a comfortable life and in love with his wife Gretta Conroy. The choices made for the
main characters turned out to be important here because it shows that men and women often suffer
from the same feelings when they cannot build a relationship based on trust and confidence among
them, regardless of class or status they may have. I am not saying that Joyce read ´Odour of
Chrysanthemums´ before writing ´The Dead´, but the fact that the main character in one story is
male and the other female strengthen the importance of the building of a relationship being the
responsibility of both.
In Lawrence´s plot, Elizabeth can only see two perspectives: the daily struggles of her life
and the lack of love from her husband, Walter. She is not considering any options to improve the
relationship with her husband and the reader can understand that the same is happening with
Walter, something that Elizabeth will only realize in the end of the story. Lawrence keeps the reader
wondering what is going to happen when Walter finally gets home; the tension arises while the
family awaits for the arrival of the father, possibly drunk, yes, but at home regardless of his
conditions; maybe the couple can find a way to improve their relationship or at least discuss their
marriage; a conversation between husband and wife could bring some light in a life full of darkness.
But the actual theme is far from clear until the end of the plot. One possible question at this stage
of the story is whether is it possible to have a marriage that is worth having with that kind of life?
The point here is that Elizabeth and his husband must probably did not had the time and strength
to see the importance of building a real relationship among themselves, they were certainly not
giving enough attention to one another; both were suffering with their own problems and sorrows,
not seem the importance of building what could be the only thing that could give joy in their lives,
which is their relationship.
In Joyce´s, Gabriel has somehow a different type of struggle. The plot takes place partially
in a party held by his aunts, Kate and Julia, and in one moment, speaking with Lily, the maid, he feels
uneasy with an answer she gives to him: “The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can
get out of you”; and right after that a self-disappointment when he realizes that he will fail in his
speech as he felt he did with the conversation with Lily; and again a little later when he had a small
chat with Miss Ivors, when she accused him of being a West Briton. All these seems to show
ambiguity and insecurity on his part, a certain sense of misplace. But it is in his speech, unaware of
the consequences, that he says something that is going to touch deeply his wife Gretta, which shows
that external events in this story as well as in Lawrence´s seems to dominate the relations between
the couples: “thoughts of the past, of youth, of changes, of absent faces that we miss here tonight”.
Gabriel clearly was not aware of the feelings his wife was facing even before they become to know
each other.
Lawrence seems to realize that the only way for Elizabeth to understand what she has
been missing in her life as spouse is with the death of Walter, that dies working in the mine. The
same kind of understanding could have happened if it was Elizabeth that have died and it was Walter
that would feel what he missed as a husband. It would be expected that if Walter arrives at home
drunk, they would probably have another fight and continue with their daily problems, not caring
much for one another; not really knowing each other. Only with an event of that magnitude is what
makes Elizabeth, and most people, to think a little bit beyond the day-to-day life, not paying much
attention to what is important. She realizes that they have lost the opportunity to really know each
other as a wife and husband and to try to enhance their happiness building a better relationship
between them. In the end of the plot she says: “…but how awful she knew it now to have been a
wife. And he, dead now, how awful he must have felt it to be a husband.” They were living together;
they were raising two kids, but they hardly know one another.
In ´The Dead´ Joyce decides for the death of Michael Furey, a young boy that Gretta knew
when she was still a teenager, someone she loved and could not forget. Joyce uses the feelings
Gretta still have in relation to Furey as a way to show the lack of confidence and trust Gretta and
Gabriel were having in their marriage. It is this event that happened even before they become to
know one another that will define their relationship. They have two children and seem to live what
could be identified as a normal life, but she was not able to forget her lost love. She was never really
open for Gabriel; never let their relationship develop in a way that would allow her to forget Michael
or at least not allowing his memory to interfere in their marriage. But unfortunately in avoiding
letting Gabril be really part of her life, she makes Gabriel develop a sort of insecurity, that could be
avoided if they just could have a real and supportive relationship. Having a true and open
relationship with Gretta would make the feelings of being misplaced and not confident that Gabriel
was having less troublesome, since he could not even feel he was part in the relationship with his
own wife. They were both strangers to one another and in Joyce´s, as well as in Lawrence´s, the
responsibility is never in just one of them, but always on both man and woman in the marriage.
Gretta was suffering not only because of a lost love, but she also felt she was responsible for the
death of Michael. The lack of understanding in the part of Gabriel of what she was feeling
throughout their marriage and the fact that she did not shared those important feelings with
someone she chose to live with determined the kind of relations they were building, one of
misconceptions and untrusty that inevitably turns in unhappiness.
The ´Odour of Chrysanthemums´ and ´The Dead´ are centered in the lack of knowledge
and understanding of the couples forming the main characters of the play, resulting unnecessarily
in a life full of loneliness and unhappiness. Gretta should have shared her feelings with her husband
allowing him the opportunity to support her, conditions that were key to build a trustful relationship
that they could have had. Elizabeth and Walter were both dealing with their own sorrows and
struggles making them blind to the suffering of the other. If those couples could truly share all
aspects of their lives with one another, their desires and sadness, they would have found the
support they were desperate in need and possibly the joy of life lying right beside them in bed.