Katherine Mansfield “The Daughters of the Late Colonel”

In the story “The Daughters of the Late Colonel,” why do you think Josephine and Constantia are so indecisive and unsure of themselves? Why are they so intimidated by their father?

Josephine and Constantia were so unsure of themselves because before their father died, they always had their father dictating what was right and wrong in their lives. He was always telling them to do something or stop something based on what would please him more. They didn’t have to think for themselves or make decisions before. They would base everything on what would make their father happy, if they thought it would annoy their father they just wouldn’t do it. They were so intimated by their father because of his rough, stern, and controlling nature. There are several examples from the text looking back on the way their father behaved towards everyone and how now that even affects their decision making.

The girls even fear the way they are handling his death and burial; they fear they are being looked down upon. For example, the text says “What would father say when he found out? ”Buried. You two girls had me buried!” She heard his stick thumping.” The thought of their father made them feel so shameful and guilty, as if they were doing a “wicked and heartless” thing by having him buried. (pg. 325-326)

It was also “a rule for years never to disturb father in the morning, whatever happened.” He is now dead and they want to enter that room in the morning to do something and they fear he is going to be disappointed and bothered by them; but he is dead and it doesn’t matter now! Later they remember the way his “hand would shake up and down” when their father was impatient. (pg. 328) They fear the disapproval of their father so extremely that it affects their mind set even now when he is deceased. He had such an impact on the way they lived their lives that now without them they don’t know what to do with themselves, they don’t know how to make decisions for themselves, or what they even like and want because they were so used to accommodating their father.