Elizabeth Bates in Odour of Chrysanthemums

In this story, Elizabeth Bates is the dissatified wife of a coalminer, Walter who wastes away most of his limited wages on alcohol.Elizabeth is from a higher social circle who has married Walter(a man from a lower-class family) and therefore is unable to adjust to the dire conditions she is sunjected to physically as well as emotionally.She is a woman of 'imperious mein' and will not compensate even in the least and refers to Walters house as a 'dirt hole' and refuses to understand/realize that having a drink at the public house is common among coalminers and she will not step in there to fetch her husband.She is stubborn in her refusal to 'learn to make allowances'

Before hearing of Walters death she is continually criticising and complaining about him, there is no utterance at all of anything positive about him.S...