Abstract
This paper tries to trace the development of D. H. Lawrence's tale of "Odour of Chrysanthemums" in his The White Peacock through two published and two unpublished versions of the tale and The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd to The Rainbow as it presumably helps to gain a deeper understanding of the artistic growth of this 20th century novelist of major importance. Some intellectual growth of remarkable significance emerges, the paper points out, in this artist's view of his own father and mother, finally to arrive at an artistic detachment where all this novelist's personal questions in parent-child relationships are transcended. As Keith Cushman has shown in his D. H. Lawrence at Work (1978), an analytical survey of the concluding scenes in all the versions available of "Odour of Chrysanthemus" reveals a dramatic evolution in D. H. Lawrence's deepened insight into the human condition of alienation and isolation. This paper makes an attempt also at a classification and commentary concerning the symbolic uses of repetitions like `shadow', `fire', `fear', `stranger', `murmur', `bitter', `sulky', `sullen', 'awkward', 'chrysanthemum', etc., which in this paper are elucidated in numerous passages from the text, It is found that these repetitions help a great deal to establish the colour and tone ofory, reinforcing its implications and the author's viewpoint. The paper goes along in its study of the structure and growth of the tale in three sections: Introductory Remarks... Structure. Development.
