These two stories in Lawrence's compilation of short stories are very different, however, they contain many similarities in the way that D.H.Lawrence presents families, especially of the different classes, although there are also contrasts shown. There are three main families, which due to marriage increases when Mary marries Mr Massy in Daughters of the Vicar. There is also the family of the Rigleys in Odour of Chrysanthemums, although they play a very minor part in the story.
             The relationship between Elizabeth Bates and her husband is not very satisfactory, as the reader, along with Elizabeth Bates herself as the story goes on, realises that there was in fact no love in the relationship and they did not really know each other. There were simply remnants of a mechanical and functional ritualistic love. Her husband's death allows her to finally see the true state of affairs: "There had been nothing between them, and yet they had come together, exchanging nakedness repeatedly...For as she looked at the dead man, her mind, cold and detached...I have been fighting a husband who did not exist." Her realisation of her marriage causes her to feel differently about her children, who she describes as "like ice in her womb". This troubled marriage is reflective of Mary Lindley and Mr Massy's marriage, where Mary realises that she has done wrong in marrying him and that is why she wants to help Louisa, as she does not want her to make the same mistake.
             "She looked and looked at the baby, and almost hated it, and suffered an anguish of love for it. She hated it because it made her live again in her flesh, when she could not live in the flesh, she could not. She wanted to trample her flesh down, down, extinct, to live in the mind...Mary was so afraid. It was as if the darkness were coming upon her." Mary feels true resentment towards the baby and Mr Massy. She was reluctant to let him go near her, yet she let him, due to his overwhelming power...