Background

1
The Daughters of the Late Colonel
By Katherine Mansfield
2
Background
Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield was
closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and
something of a rival of Virginia Woolf. Her
creative years were burdened with loneliness,
illness, jealousy, and alienation - all these
reflected from her work in the bitter description
of marital and family relationships of her
middle-class characters.
3
About Her Life Katherine Mansfield was born in
Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class
colonial family. Her father was a banker and
mother was a genteel. At the age of nine she had
her first text published. She withdrew to London
in 1903 and studied at the Queen's College, where
she joined the staff of the College Magazine.
Then she moved back in New Zealand in 1906,and
failed to become a professional cello player. In
1908, her lifelong friend Baker persuaded
Mansfield's father to allow Katherine to move
back to England, with an allowance of 100 a
year. There she devoted herself to writing, and
never visited New Zealand again.
4
After an unhappy marriage in 1909 with George
Brown, she toured for a while. During her stay in
Germany she wrote satirical sketches of German
characters, In a German Pension, which were
published in 1911. On her return to London in
1910, she became ill with an untreated sexually
transmitted disease. She attended literary
parties without much enthusiasm "Pretty rooms
and pretty people, pretty coffee, and cigarettes
out of a silver tankard... I was wretched."
Until 1914 she published stories in Rhythm and
The Blue Review. During the war she traveled
restlessly between England and France, and in
1915 she met her brother. When he died in World
War I, Mansfield focused her writing on New
Zealand and her family. 'Prelude' (1916), one of
her most famous stories, was written during this
period. In 1918 Mansfield divorced from her first
husband and married John Murry. In the same year
she was found to have tuberculosis.
5
Mansfield and Murry became closely associated
with D.H. Lawrence and his wife. When Murry had
an affair with the Princess, Mansfield did not
object to the affair but her letters to Murry "I
am afraid you must stop writing these love
letters to my husband while he and I live
together. It is one of the things which is not
done in our world." In her last years Mansfield
lived much of her time in southern France and in
Switzerland, seeking relief from tuberculosis.
In 1922, she had to spend a few hours every day
on some treatment but did no good. With no
company of her literary friends, family, or her
husband, she wrote much about her own roots and
her childhood. Mansfield died of a pulmonary
hemorrhage on January 9, 1923, in France. Her
last words were "I love the rain. I want the
feeling of it on my face."
6
About Her Writing Mansfield's family
memoirs were collected in Bliss (1920), which
secured her reputation as a writer. In the next
two years she did her best work, achieving the
height in The Garden Party (1922), which she
wrote during the final stages of her illness.
Mansfield was greatly influenced by Anton
Chekhov, sharing his warm humanity and attention
to small details of human behavior. Her influence
on the development of the short story as a form
of literature was also notable.
7
Summary
The Daughters of the Late Colonel is a story of
two daughters struggling to accept a new form of
freedom after the death of their father. It
describes one week in the life of the Colonels
daughters Constantia and Josephine. Their father
has just died and now they live one of their
busiest weeks of their life. There are so many
things to do so that they hardly know where to
start.
8
At the beginning of the story, there is the
funeral to be organized and then there is a nurse
Andrews who is not a very pleasant person.
Unfortunately, Constantia and Josephine invited
her to stay for one week. They have felt obliged
to invite her because she had nursed their father
night and day in the end and she was very kind to
him. But she is an eccentric person. An important
thing to be done is to go through the Colonels
room and to settle about his things. For
Constantia and Josephine, it is a very unpleasant
task because normally nobody had the right to
enter his room when he was not in. The two are
very scared and become victims of their own
fantasies. They imagine that their father might
be somewhere in the room. Constantia and
Josephine get so terrified that they leave the
room and put off the settling.
9
The other important thing to be decided is
whether Constantia and Josephine should keep Kate
as their servant or not. She is always
unfriendly-slams the doors, slaps down the food
and she does not even care if the sisters like
her food or not. Constantia and Josephine realize
that they could easily dismiss Kate because there
is not their father anymore to be cooked for.
But they dont come to any conclusion every
time. Because as they hearing a barrel-organ
starts to play in the streets, sisters get
excited. They have to stop the organ-grinder
otherwise their father would get mad. Suddenly
they realize that there is no reason to go down
to the streets. It is the first time they really
realize that their father has died.
10
Characters

• Constantia Pinner
• A middle-aged woman, who is the Colonels younger
  daughter. She is indecisive to make decision and
  usually speaks faintly as she expresses her
  opinion.
• Josephine Pinner
• Also in middle-aged. She is the elder sister of
  Constantia, who is interested in making decisions
  and guiding her less able sister to do so. Both
  of these two sisters never disobey their fathers
  discipline

11
Kate The Pinners servant, who is proud and
insolent. Constantia and Josephine plan to fire
her. Cyril Constantia and Josephines nephew.
They decide to give him the Colonels watch.
12
Colonel The Pinner sisters dead father, who
is severe, powerful, and a kind of tyrant.
Everything has to be done exactly the way he
wanted. Otherwise, he will get angry, so even he
passes away, his two daughters still feel afraid
of him. Nurse Andrews Colonels nurse, who
simply loves butter. She takes advantage of
Constantia and Josephines kindness when having
dinner with them.
13
Theme

• Katherine Mansfields "Daughters of the Late
  Colonel" is about how two sisters face their
  lives after the death of their father.
• Before their father dies, these two adult sisters
  have lived in fathers rules. Their life with him
  has filled them with terror they cant even
  communicate with him.
• After the funeral, their lives dont go any
  further. They remain in bondage to the dead man,
  fearful of dislodging his image or receiving his
  posthumous disapproval.

14
By giving her nephew the watch and not stopping
the organ-grinder, they seem to internally
realize that they are free to do as they please.
But this progression is only temporary, the
sisters quickly stay quiet because of their
initial fear of their father. This story reflects
the unfair treatment which male gives to female.
The colonel is a symbol of patriarchy women who
live in this authority-dominated society are
repressed in their own thought and cant have
their own ideas. Even the world changes, women
cant still get real freedom. We can also apply
this idea onto the relationship between
authorities and human-beings in general. We tend
to follow a series of rules without asking why.
Do we dare to challenge the authority?