By Katherine Mansfield
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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 Colonel‘s
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.
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 Colonel’s
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.
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 don’t 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.
Characters
Constantia Pinner
A middle-aged woman, who is the
Colonel’s 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 father’s discipline
Kate
The Pinners’ servant, who is proud and insolent.
Constantia and Josephine plan to fire her.
Cyril
Constantia and Josephine’s nephew. They decide
to give him the Colonel’s watch.
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
Colonel’s nurse, who simply loves butter. She takes
advantage of Constantia and Josephine’s kindness
when having dinner with them.
Theme
Katherine Mansfield’s "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 father’s rules. Their
life with him has filled them with terror;
they can’t even communicate with him.
After the funeral, their lives don’t go any
further. They remain in bondage to the
dead man, fearful of dislodging his image
or receiving his posthumous disapproval.
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 can’t have their own ideas. Even the
world changes, women can’t 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?