The Daughters of the Late Colonel Literary Elements

Short Story; Short Fiction

1920s, as two sisters assume responsibilities for their household after the death of their father

The point of view is equally that of both sisters.

The tone is relatively frivolous given a death has just occurred; the mood is both confused and upbeat as the women start to navigate a world they have been largely kept insulated from.

Constantina and Josephine are the protagonists; their father, the Colonel, was the antagonist.

There is no real conflict in the story, just little differences of opinion regarding where their father's belongings should end up.

The climax of the story is really the death of the Colonel, which happens before the story actually begins.

Their father's death foreshadows the girls' needing to begin running the Pinner household.

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The story alludes to the way in which young women were really the possession of their fathers until they married and then became the possession of their husbands.

There is no real imagery, save for the descriptions of the girls' home and their father's possessions which conjures up a picture in the reader's mind of a well to do home.

A sad occasion has occurred in the Pinner home, the death of their father, but the girls feel oddly liberated because he has been such a tyrant during their growing up.

There is a parallel between the fact that the mice seem hungry and can't find any crumbs, and the fact that Nurse Andrews over-eats and isn't leaving them any food.

The household is the way in which the author describes all of the individual staff who work for the Pinner family.

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