The tone of “Odour of Chrysanthemums” is resentful (in Part 1) and resigned (in Part 2). Though this story is not technically from Elizabeth’s perspective (as the narration is third-person rather than first-person), the narrator stays very close to Elizabeth’s experience, channeling her emotional state. Take the following passage, for example, from Part 1 of the story, when Elizabeth still believes Walter hasn’t come home for dinner because he is out drinking:
As the mother watched her son's sullen little struggle with the wood, she saw herself in his silence and pertinacity; she saw the father in her child's indifference to all but himself. She seemed to be occupied by her husband. He had probably gone past his home, slunk past his own door, to drink before he came in, while his dinner spoiled and wasted in waiting.
The language in this passage clearly communicates Elizabeth’s resentment toward Walter—she is “occupied by her husband,” thinking about his “indifference to all but himself” and (incorrectly) envisioning how he had “slunk past his own door […] while his dinner spoiled and wasted in waiting.” This final sentence is notable as an example of “free indirect discourse,” whereby the narrator channels Elizabeth’s thoughts directly—rather than stating, “Elizabeth thought that he had probably gone past his home…” the narrator presents her thoughts almost as fact, thus enabling Elizabeth’s resentful feelings toward her husband to affect the tone of the story itself.
In Part 2 of the story, Elizabeth starts worrying that maybe Walter didn’t go to the pub and then ultimately learns that he was in a mining accident and died. The tone thus shifts from an angry and resentful one to a resigned and disillusioned one. While readers might expect the tone to become devastated or distraught as a wife grieves the loss of her husband, Lawrence hints that their relationship was already too damaged (and Elizabeth already too isolated) for her to feel true sadness.
