Death As A Hostile Force Of Nature

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Death as a hostile force of nature in Katherine Mansfield short story. The daughters of late Colonel is about the characters who are negatively influenced by death, in which death is creating psychological, mental impacts in characters and resulting in the transformation by making them wise with the depiction of the society in which death s role is shown .This research has been successfully depicted the elements of death from every aspect.

Dedication

I dedicate this thesis to my friends, family, my teacher, my supervisor who has made me to achieve my goal.

Table of Contents

S. No Chapters Pages

1. Abstract 6

2. Dedication 7

3. Introduction 9_10

4. Literature Review 11­_16

5. Objectives 17_44

6. Conclusion 45 _49

Chapter 1

Introduction

Every soul shall have the taste of death (Ch21, Verse35). The status of death as the ultimate reality is undisputable. Death has engulfed many mortals till this day and its course of action will continue till the very end. Literary artists are quite sensitive to their surroundings. Their pen records everything; be it the first blossoms of love, the roars of the green monster of jealousy, the cries of a broken heart or the echo of a man’s echo. Then, how can we expect them to overlook the devastations caused by the unwanted and uninvited visitor death; when its very name casts a spell of gloom on common men.

Death appears as a recurring theme in the verse and prose of many literary artists. But during the course of her humble literary studies, the researcher developed a deep sense of appreciation for the manner in which Katherine Mansfield handles the theme of death. In her case, the precision of autobiographical elements mingle together with the creativity of true literary genius. The researchers ever-growing interest in the role of death in Katherine’s short fictional prose made her choose this as an area for the study. Before proceeding to the problem of research, it is worth mentioning who Katherine Mansfield was and what characterizes her short stories and sets them apart from those offer contemporaries. Katherine Mansfield belonged to New Zealand and met fame as short fictional prose writer in English. She, at times, presents the character thoughts without any apparent logical or chronological sequence. By doing so, she reveals the psychological aspects of their personalities. She wrote a number of short stories. Her themes are characterized by universality death, love, social stratification, gender, roles and human selfish tendencies often serves as the theme of her short stories. She is one of the Pioneers in setting of modernist fiction. The theme of her womanhood and the associated woes are often found in her stories because of her failed marriage and underwent the pain of miscarriage.

Her works are concerned with motives such as family and love dealings. She shaped stories based on the enlightenment of personality relatively, based on her childhood, and they have psychological severity and perception. She has deviated from the traditional norms of plot construction. Her stories are not extended over a series of events. Rather, the whole essence of her stories is usually concentrated in a single meaningful event.

Katherine Mansfield life was full of miseries and sickness .She lost her beloved brother Leslie Heron Beauchamp during first World War and the sense of this loss runs through the body of her literature. She got great popularity even after her death. Death of brother greatly influenced her; we can observe the impacts of death in her short stories.

The Daughters of late Colonel is the story of two daughters who undergo some emotional and psychological transition as a consequence of their father’s death. Initially, they find it hard beyond measure to live without the deceased man so they try to preserve a sense of his presence by acting in a manner as if they were constrained by his paternal authority. This state of denial lasts for some days then eventually, the daughters muster up the courage to accept that they have lost their father who was ultimate figure of authority for them, and now they must leap over. The self-imposed constraints to face the new world, which lies on the other side, the death of the father, affects them and it s about how they handle the death of the father. In this story, death is having impact on characters. So death plays an important role this dominating in his short stories and its hostile force of nature in Katherine’s Mansfield short stories.

Chapter 2

Literature Review

Cooper discusses (2008, p.59) the theme of death and loss in "the Daughters of late Colonel" and two other short stories of Katherine, but his stance towards this theme is considerably different from that of present study sees the story as a reflection and Cooper (2008,p.59) says "Her late fiction reflects an intensity of purpose that incorporates the unspoken anger the despair of women, as they are confined to tombs that are the making of those for whom they mourn." He has found psychological burial of daughters under tons of dust of patriarchal dominance. Cooper has found feministic strands in the story.

Cooper (2008,p.60) writes: ‘their father is dead and has been buried, but the patriarchal authority vested in his living presence remains as a ghost to haunt the daily lives of the sisters’. Cooper (2008,p.60) further elaborates this idea by writing, "the symbol of their servitude centered on their father’s walking stick, which within Josephine’s consciousness can be still heard as a thumping sound and in which is the auditory cue that usually "signaled" his authoritative presence which confines the house."

In his thesis, he not refers only to the actual death of the Colonel but more terrifying to the psychological death of his daughters, which was caused by the negation of their selves under the trance of their father’s ultimate authority over them. Cooper is not majorly concerned with the loss of a father but the loss of the sense of self appears to him a relatively more important theme in the story. However, this present study is not intended for bringing feministic elements from the story. Rather, it will simply focus on the psychological and emotional disturbance caused by the loss of a family member.

Lauber (2003) discusses in an article in Universal Journal–in the association of young Journalist and writers , how the daughters of late Colonel "represents the move of the nineteenth-Century Victorian period giving way to a whole new world of uncertainty." (Lauber2003)

The research article has been something in common with Coopers thesis as it discusses in which Lauber (2003) says Mansfield subtly reveals the near-tragic lives of the two women, whose attachment to the past doesn’t allow them to reach for the freedom from repression and self-denial that New World offers." The article also presents a contrastive analysis of Josephine and Constantia. Besides commenting on the story, the article also talks about the Mansfield divergence from the literary conventions of her time as she wrote "The daughter of the late Colonel" as a first person narrative, with perspective floating from one character to another while maintaining the use of 3rd person pronouns".

Kimber (2007,p.173) quotes Francoise Defroment, about most recurring theme as a "Katherine Mansfield short stories radiates an atmosphere of light and lightness. Yet underneath this aerial world the inexorable sweep of the sickle of the sickle of the death can be perceived."

Kimber (2007 ,p.174) adds " though each death described has already taken place for Joseph Flora, they look at death in its living aspect of grief wedged between her brother’s deaths and her own; these stories represent an interesting compromise between being awash with grief in life and coming to terms with it, however briefly in art ."

Mcdaniels (2010 ,p.7) says : "Josephine from "Daughters of the late colonel" must suppress a giggle when she thinks of her austere dead fathers top hat on the ridiculous head of the porter.

Kascavoka (volume 35, no 1.2009 page 141) says: "The most remarkable of Mansfield’s characters perhaps are Constantia and Josephine Pinner, the daughters of the late colonel, who come the closest to Emma’s Miss Bates. Unlike other Mansfield middle aged characters, and in accordance with Austen s famous spinster, they are extremely funny, while at the same time tragic.’

Bourke (2009,p.2) says "Constantia’s first worry, for example, who should get their fathers top. These women have been conditioned to be docile and as a result, are completely paralyzed when presented with the opportunity for freedom."

Poon Yuk-Kang, Anita (1989,p.24) says "At the beginning of the story, Josephine and Constantia are talking in their bedroom .Then a flash back brings them to the dining room having breakfast with Nurse Andrews. Another flashback shifts them beside the bed of their dying father. After a few moments, they are found outside and then inside their father study room. Besides their house, the vision can also be seen from cemetery where their father is funeral is held and it shifts even farther away from home to a foreign country Ceylon"

Rebecca Richardson (2005,p.68) says "In "Daughters of the late Colonel," we find Two-middle aged sisters who are dominated by their father. The power relations in this story are explicit: the imbalance of power results in the two women living without romantic, love, or families of their own. They had seen stuck in a child-parent relationship, even after the father’s death."

Ruckles (2002,pg.1) says ," In the stories prelude and the daughters of late colonel, "Beryl and Constantia both allude to feeling that they are somehow acting out a part, a part which conflicts with true selves."

Ruckles (2002,pg. 6) adds: "Constantia recognizes the she had put on this other face, lived this other life in order to placate her father, but this herself seemed to be exactly than another which didn’t not represent her real self."

But this research is on the psychological, emotional, social devastations created by the visitor death which is new area and worth research.

Millighan’s wrote in the thesis about the fakeness of the Constantia and Josephine when they don’t drive similar to themselves and are proscribed by father and at the end when father dies they get their own distinctiveness and gets autonomy.

Millighan (1992-1996 pg:9) says: "Many of her characters suddenly wake up to the unreality of their lives, feeling as if they have been living under ‘false identities’ because Constantia, in "The Daughters of the Late Colonel," like her sister Josephine, has conformed to her father’s expectations for so long she feels she is afforded only glimpses of her ‘real self’ all but extinguished by other’s demand."

Millighan (1992-1996) pg: 10) believes that Constantia and Josephine has wear a mask , not possessing their individuality, by existing for others and Milligan gives the reference of the journal. Let me take the case of K.M .She has led, ever since she can remember, a very typically false life. Yet through it all there have been moments instants, gleams when she has felt the possibility of something quite other. (Journal 1922, 330)

But this present study is reverse of which shows death as a mishap and how these two daughters handle the situation, showing the society’s behavior in critical time and the psychological, emotional changes which is caused death of the father and has shown death as a hostile force of nature.

In Gunsteren’s (1990 , Page 119) book it is mentioned; "This essentially is Mansfield’s method of narrative irony. In "The Daughters of The Late Colonel", the irony is not so much the product of events, or the conversations and thoughts the two daughters have, but the manner in which these events, conversations, and thoughts are viewed by the characters. The narrator projects the distorted non–judgments’ of the characters without qualification. The irony is generated by the readers’ progressive awareness that these views are subjective and unrealizable. The two subjective perspectives are ironically contrasted with each other throughout the twelve fragments of the story. "

In Gunsteren book ( 1990 , Pg149) it is written "The "Daughters of the Late Colonel," are basically episodic in structure, fragmentary and discontinuous, while Mansfield shortest short stories are composed of fragmentary, sometimes numbered sections, complete sketches within themselves, depicting interrupted moments, linked in a meaningful progression."

According to Shannon Williams (2003), The elements of fiction in Katherine Mansfield in his Journal he has an opinion that In Daughters of the late Colonel, it tells about the father s dominance on the girls mind ,the characters thoughts are presented and it tells about the power of the father on the girls after his death, who are completely like puppets to their father, they were not having uniqueness which makes them irresolute, they cannot take a decision, fathers ascendancy was felt when they thought they are burying their father without his consent and then in this journal the description of the stick of Colonel is given that the sound of stick was associated with their memories and then they think of Ceylon, there is the recollection of past memory which is related to their minds, at the end the conclusion of his journal .

Imran Kursunco (2006,p 118) says "Katherine Mansfield’s ‘The daughters of the Late Colonel’ is a good exercise built around the concept of female weakness and her final obedience to male power in a patriarchal family. Mansfield presents the spectrum of women’s lives with her patriarchal family. Mansfield presents the spectrum of women’s lives with her characterization of the two daughters of the late colonel"

The research has been principally done in the daughters of late colonel on the language, plot and the ascendancy of male on women and the feminism or the liberty of the two women caused by the death of the father, of living life for father, but this area of social, psychological, emotional elements they are not explored and are untouched.There has been no research done on this topic .Hence , it will be very helpful for every one to gain information in this thesis .

Objectives

Chapter 4

Death cannot be disregarded and cannot be avoided , there is no run away from death .One have to mug death .Death is the ultimate fact and reality because it is in nature .people are slave to the natural commencement of death so human s are powerless and it creates devastations on the living people who are affected by it socially , psychologically ,emotionally and then when time passes , time mends the loss .

In this story, we see two daughters who countenance the father’s death, creates bewilderment in the whole story because it gets complicated for the two daughters to be in this world without their father. However, it becomes difficult in the society to survive when there is no father .lack of parental control and sense of loneliness appears, due to the death of the father in this story.

Constantia and Josephine feel so singlehanded and alone, that they name Nurse Andrew for a some time to keep on with them because it gets difficult in society to live with no parents. Andrew was the nurse who reside witj Colonel till the he was breathing and Colonel daughters were bound to face her and to make her reside with themselves even they didn’t wanted Nurse Andrew to be in the home but they were persuaded because she was with Colonel when he was dieing so they ask Nurse Andrew :

"Do not you think it would be rather nice if we asked Nurse Andrews to stay on for a week as our guest? Thought," went on Josephine quickly, "I should just say this afternoon, after I've paid her, 'My sister and I would be very pleased, after all you've done for us, Nurse Andrews, if you would stay on for a week as our guest.' I'd have to put that in about being our guest in case–(pg1) "death leads for the social consequences of getting girls closer with nurse Andrew to stay with them as a guest but how at time the Nurse and the daughters relationship goes it will be noticed that who plays its part.

In society, there are different traditions followed by people in times of joy and sorrows like normally English society prefers to wear black color in death ceremony and in the daughters of Late Colonel, the daughters talks about coloring the dress in black, they were unable to follow the norm of the society.

"Do you think we ought to have our dressing"Black?" almost shrieked Josephine ( pg 1).

Constantia says that no one looks us, they were not in that condition to wear black dress but Josephine tells her what will their servant and postman imagine if they wear home clothes because one has to follow the tradition (pg 1) Josephine says that people might see us:

"Kate does," said Constantia. "And the postman very well might."(pg 1) Further, they follow the society s custom as:

"Josephine thought of her dark-red slippers, which matched her dressing- gown, and of Constantia's favorites indefinite green ones which went with hers. Black! Two black dressing gowns and two pairs of black woolly slippers, creeping off to the bathroom like black cats.

(Pg 2).

and at that time many letters arrive at to their home which Josephine response and Josephine checks the letter of sympathy because that was the sad occasion for them she checks and answers the epistle of sympathy ,for them father was everything .He use to make the whole home run, these girls were innocent of the realities of life that is death which comes and snatches away their hope so they become socially very weak and hesitant to make a judgment because it gets difficult to settle on when there is no father because he was the vital figure and head of the family, they were all the occasion getting befuddled in taking diminutive judgment without the father for example, they could not able to make that what to do with the yellow wristwatch of the father and his cap , they didn’t able to fix on to whom it should be handed and they assume a lot because they were not use to put in order things and judge the home .it s just due to the lack of parental control they don’t know what to do and are weak in making a pronouncement exclusive of the father, the person things like watch and hat loses its value and importance these two daughters decide to live it all because death is in nature.

These girls were facing extreme predicament with the servant kate because of her harsh treatment and performance. After the death of the daughters father Kate’s stance changes towards the girl ,becomes negative with the father’s death; she was banging the doors, shouting at them. They were not contented with her cooking and this time these girls couldn’t endure it more because Kate comes and asks valiantly that will they eat ready made fish or bubbled fish In the beginning she just asks them will they eat the fish which is bubbled in the water or will they eat it cook , the girls donot’t comprehend of what she was motto and then she almost gets heated tells them that she is questioning about fish and she passes by them leaving the door open and giving the kitchen door a bang .The girls say that this is very horrendous since father is not and she is conduct herself outlandishly so they think that they should take a pace against her but it takes them very long to take a step so they are weak in making a choice.

"And this time," said Josephine firmly, "we must come to a definite decision."( pg13 )

"I don't feel I can settle to anything," said Josephine, there is not father to cook for."(pg 13 )

"we could manage our own food ( pg13 )

this is caused by very death of the father if he was alive such things would not have been taken consign. The treatment of Kate changes, her conduct with Josephine and Constantia becomes unsympathetic; Kate was acting them in such an discourteous manner ,showing no reverence to the girls, grabbing the plates, banging the doors without any reason. Kate was only a servant and she was bigheaded towards the girls because they were having no father so society crushes weak people as follow the writer describes her as :

"And proud young Kate, the enchanted princess, came in to see what the old tabbies wanted now. She snatched away their plates of mock something or other and slapped down a white, terrified blancmange."(pg3 )

One day Nurse Andrew , Josephine and Constantia were sitting .Josephine asks kate for jam in a very civilized mode and Kate set down the vacant bottle of jam for them. Nurse Andrew says it is empty and then Josephine sends Con to bring jam

"I know," she said. "Marmalade. There's some marmalade in the sideboard. Get it, Con." (pg4)

because they didn’t wanted to hassle Kate any more .

Constantia looked dubious. "We can't disturb Kate again, (pg4)

so Kate attitude becomes negative to the parentless girls which is due to the death of the father like they say we cannot hassle her.The servant approach changes she was not doing her post .she knows that the bottle is empty and :

"Kate knelt and burst open the sideboard, lifted the lid of the jam-pot, saw it was empty, put it on the table, and stalked off." (Pg3.)

Mr.Farolles. The imminent of Mr. Farolloes to the girls home because it’s the ritual of society for the clergymen to come up to and to put together funerals.

Mr. Farolles was a clergyman; he comes to their home and is very supportive to the daughters. He takes the accountability to organize the funeral, soothes the girls and is very gentle to them but the girls are very agitate Everything seems so dark and sad when someone dies, similar was the situation in colonel’s home, Colonels absence was felt every time Mr Farolles tells the girls that they should not be heartrending ,he will be always obliging and he will organize funeral for them .Mr farolles tells that they should devotion o tgod for serenity and relaxation of psyche but they refuse because they do not know how to counter and are sad they are totally numb their emotions become numb.They discard it for due to the kate .They think that what if they have to open the gate for the people .Who will open it of course not kate and what will kate think so they reject to take connection of peace with god for mental relaxation so the daughters were under the feet of the servant because they were socially weak due to the death of the father kate attitude changes .It shows the weakness of the girls in society they reject the worship due to kate .

"I want you to feel, Miss Pinner," said Mr. Farolles, "and you, Miss Constantia, that I'm trying to be helpful. I want to be helpful to you both, if you will let me. These are the times," said Mr Farolles, very simply and earnestly, "when God means us to be helpful to one another."

(Pg5)

"And if either of you would like a little Communion, either or both of you, here and now, you have only to tell me. A little Communion is often very help–a great comfort," he added tenderly."(pg5)

He is feeling some what compassion to these parentless girls .both girls felt happy a little and thanks him by rejecting him and the girls were facing problem with Nurse Andrew .

Nurse Andrew was a good nurse but she use to eat too much which was the dilemma for the two girls ,so she was infuriating them a lot, showing no apprehension towards them and eating she was kind to their dying father. Nurse Andrew took great care of him, sitting with Colonel when he was dying ,taking his hand, carries Colonel a lot, because she was too foodie and was eating a lot they were really sad they said it means we had to eat usual food because of the staying guest, and she finishes the whole jam when Kate brings the blank bottle of jam. Nurse Andrew didn’t take care that the girls are sad but she was irritating them filling her own stomach .The girls say :

Nurse Andrew use to ask for more intake stuff when she use to sit in eating time as follow :

It meant they had to have regular sit-down meals at the proper times, whereas if they'd been alone they could just have asked Kate if she wouldn't have minded bringing them a tray wherever they were. (Pg 3)

"And she had that maddening habit of asking for just an inch more of bread to finish what she had on her plate ‘( pg 3) .which was unaffordable for the girls.

Nurse Andrews was simply fearful about butter. Really they couldn't help feeling about butter, at least, she took advantage of their kindness .(pg 3).

The girls societal rank with the death of father becomes weak they were financially weak they were always, thinking of not spending too much money because they were not having enough money when Mr. Farolles comes they tell them that he should not be spendthrift in arranging the funeral and the same to nurse Andrew when she talks about the butted: ‘I should like it to be quite simple," said Josephine firmly, "and not too expensive. At the same time, I should like–(Pg5)

when they are fix on to send away Kate, they think that there are prepared made food in stores there is no want for Kate to cook foodstuff, but Constantia says that they are very pricey

"Oh, eggs in various forms!" said Jug, lofty again. "And, besides, there are all the cooked foods." (Pg14) "But I've always heard," said Constantia, "they are considered so very expensive(P14)

They are not that worth enough to buy the readymade food, because with the death of the father they become financially weak .When their father was alive they were not thoughtful about money because father was running the whole home but due to the death of father , they were taking caring of not spending the money .

However , the sense of loneliness of having no mother , no father and no family , no money , no friends is felt all the time in this story. which We are told of Benny their brother who lives in Ceylon remote from them is oblivious of the tribulations of the sisters and their extreme solitary. They desirable for the hold up of someone for the reason that they were so unaided. their recollections over and over to Ceylon. These girls were yearning for the family but we see no one sees the home their brother didn’t come to home shows the selfishness of the relation in times of need when the father dies they yearn for him, her mother who dies young, they make inclination if their mother was living, because of too loneliness and at the same time they think of marriage they say.

Because father is important in society and they are alone .her mother didn’t dies a natural death she dies when she was in thirties by the tingle of snake in Ceylon. Death did not only snatches their father but also takes the mother and leaving them alone in the society it was predictable that Benny will come to support them but he also shows it s part by not coming to them so it makes them imagine of marriage because it gets difficult in the society to live alone and they were weak so it was due to the death of the father that makes them realize that they are single which was shown through Ceylon.

Ceylon shows the egotism of the society and family, that there are some self-seeking people in life that they do not heed about the people who are sad and we see no one visits the home. when they were sending father’s possession watch to Benny they go out and think it should not be appropriate to send it because the postman may pinch it, it shows the social problem of which the girls were feeling. Constantia and Josephine thinks that if mother was with them, they may have been wedded, having their home ,they might have overcome the loss, the loneliness and the grief but they think if mother was alive still they would have been still single because they were socially not strong, they did not know

"How did one meet men? Or even if they had met them, how could they have got to know men well enough to be more than strangers" (pg 16).

They did not know to meet anyone, they have met only one man and that was the clergyman because they were honest and obedient to father (pg 16), they were innocent they say

"One read of people having adventures, being followed, and so on. But nobody had ever followed Constantia and her" (pg 16)

They wanted a life partner with whom they can spend the life, because a girl cannot live alone before they were not paying attention to marriage but now they are due to the death of father and due to having no contact with outside world and family, friends and the most important their mother.

These girls were not social in that case they think if mother was alive still they would have been still sole and single and because daughters loved their father a lot, due to the father s love they did not got wedded, just for him but when he dies the girls think about matrimony because of the circumstances which are so thorny that they have no other choice because they are feeling sense of loneliness and their future .They think about future that what will happen ,they could not go out because they were not social and they had to junk mail to Ceylon to give the fathers watch but they cannot belief anyone, shows the social problems in life

Oh, will you trust a gold watch to native ? (pg 9)

Where they cannot send the watch because of the fear that he might steal, it shows the conditions of Ceylon then their imagination goes back to Ceylon, they misses their nephew they think about their nephew when they tempt him with love and care to have a tea with him, they give him heavy cake to him, but Cyril rejects to have the initiative of tea shows the weak relationship in the society these are social consequences of death, the negative attitude of the society with the girls who are single and who are without the father that how the attitude of the servant changes with the girl and even the guest who shows her part that she was not taking care for girls and the servant who was not doing her job properly, the absence of father changes their life and they realize that their life has become empty and they become more sad and think of marriage even they want to send letter to Ceylon but they are thinking of how to propel Ceylon a letter because they were girls. So father plays an important role in society and mothers too. Death did not deprive girls of their father but also of their mother. Mothers are also significant they think of their mother and they think of their marriage because of too many tribulations in their social life which they were facing without the father but their wits have turn out to be so weak that they cannot even get married it was due to death making them less self-assurance and disappointing them so they feel to think about future themselves they need to think and they imagine about their family, their memories shows the status of relationship in society which is weak and full of selfish people like Kate and the guest and their status in the society how it gets weak with the death like they become money less they always think about highly costs, they think of not spending too much money on food, death ceremony and when they were sitting in taxi they think of money. They think of the price so death makes them restricted to act so all the happenings were due to death which is the hostile force of nature .it is in nature and is unavoidable phenomena every one dies in a different way like their mother dies because snake nip her she was young and dies accidently and father’s death was natural .Death of the father makes them realize the selfishness of relations and they want to get married before they were not paying attention to marriage and the support of the brother whom they misses them constantly.

The girls inability to choose the things is the result due to the lack of parental control, they messes everything, they assume a lot when they are doing something for example it takes time for them to expel the Kate and to manage the home knob less door suggests that parents are important in society and when there are no parents one feels the need of it in every phase of life. When they enter the room of the late father they couldn’t enter the room because they feel that power of the father when and they do not want to break it but it becomes breaks with death and for the first time they enter the space of the Colonel.

They fail to act in the society that was due to the death .Hence it is proved that death provided changes in their behavior and the outlook of death was negative, from every perspective death affected family, money and the people relation was shown. All these elements show that they were not having the peace of mind shows their psychological and emotional problems, which are also the part of the society. The disorder of poor language and performance shows some disorder in mind, which was having a great impact on their behavior, which was caused due to their disturbance of mind, will be discussed in next chapter.

Chapter 5

The story starts with gloominess which shows that the proceedings of this story are dark and bleak , reason was the death of the father of the two girls and then as the story progresses the psychological and emotional affects caused by the death is revealed in the form of fear , hopelessness , thinking, depression , phase of denial which is the extreme psychological element with weakness and grief is having a strong impact in this story till the end and the girls getting emotional by the separation of the father because the loss was great and they couldn’t get recuperation from the loss .

In the story, the two daughters of late Colonel are not only aggrieved by the decease of their father, they are caught in a state of psychological trauma and emotional instability. The week that follows the death is not just a period of customary mourning but it is a transitional phase in lives of Josephine and Constantia. They labor hard beyond measure to fill up the emotional emptiness.

Indecisiveness strikes the minds of the two daughters every now and then. they cannot make their mind regarding giving away the possessions of their father, like his top hat or watch , because that would be somewhat equivalent to disposing off his memories , or at least getting them dispersed. Such decisions are naturally hard for every individual but their exceptional indecisiveness is reflected in their inability to decide pretty matters like how would they prefer the fish to be cooked for their supper. Josephine finds this decision so hard that she passes on the authority to Constantia, who redirects it to Josephine. This state of indecisiveness does not come to an end, rather it is only interrupted by the maid, Kate, who herself decided to fry the fish. Such indecisiveness suggests the daughters’ bewilderment and loss of sense of wholeness, which results from loss of an invaluable family member –their father .their state of nervousness, and overwhelming anxiety causes them to be so hypersensitive to their surroundings that they even notice the little rustle caused by the scurrying or hopping of a mouse. Constantia identify with the mouse because perhaps she finds herself meek and prone to assault as that little creature. She feels sorry for not providing the mouse with any bread crumbs because perhaps its lack of physical sustenance in their house reminds her of her lack of own of emotional sustenance and nourishment in the absence of her father.

Even towards the end of the story, when Constantia learns somewhat to deal with the grief, she still finds an echo of her inner painful moans and shrieks in the "queer little crying noise" produced by a host of young sparrows fluttering on the window (p.16)

The two girl’s incapacity to stand the loss of their father puts them in to a phase of psychological denial. They tend to deny his decease for the first time when at the funeral chilling sensation of terror seizes them whether they are doing the right thing or not by burying him or not. She feels that putting him in a coffin might not be something completely appropriate (p.5)

Laying corpses in coffins and carrying out their burial is a matter of the usual course of things and one could never be doubtful about its being appropriate unless one is not ready that one is dealing with corpse .

In the beginning, the perception of the two sisters are presented, the sensations caused in them after the decease of the father, it is described that both the sisters are have a break in the bed but their brain is misplaced somewhere and they are feeling fatigue and somewhat weak, accordingly the restlessness of the mind of the two sisters are shown here at this point and acquaint us about the deep mental agony caused by the death of the father from the begin.

"The week after was one of the busiest weeks of their lives. Even when they went to bed it was only their bodies that lay down and rested; their minds went on, thinking things out, talking Josephine produces some strange emotional behavior which may be reason of the psychological things over, wondering, deciding, trying to remember where . . ." (Pg .1 )

trauma her cry and giggling nervously is very strange .(pg1)

"And Constantia was staring at the ceiling lost in her thoughts, they both were deciding to whom the father s top should be given and Josephine bursts in to tears and nearly giggles ‘But," cried Josephine, flouncing on her pillow and staring across the dark at Constantia, "father's head!" And suddenly, for one awful moment, she nearly giggled." (Pg 1 )

It is shown that Josephine to a great extent is aggrieved by the decease of the father, she is producing some odd response when she is deciding about the father s hat she chuckles nervously and sobs .Her nervousness and silly laugh shows that she is to a great deal aggrieved by the death of the Colonel.

Josephine howl while answering to the letters (pg2).

Constantia, Josephine see their father laying in a coffin purple and they desire their father to open his eyes and they think it would have make such a big difference if he could have opened his eyes (pg4) because for them veracity was very bitter and they were very fragile to accept the reality they could not abide the decease of father is not so they couldn’t deem that father has expire, which leads to phase of denial.

They feel that father is heated for burying him because they are sensing his antagonism they think that it is not the right thing to do that why are they burying him, they said that his features seems in anger, his eyes were not blissful they can feel the features of the father angry like an alive man and they think that why are they burying him is the phase of denial.

Well, at any rate, all that part of it was over, though neither of them could possibly believe that father was never coming back. Josephine had had a moment of absolute terror at the cemetery, while the coffin was lowered, to think that she and Constantia had done this thing without asking his permission. (Pg5)

Conversely, they got a great grief of mind and this phase of denial lasts for sometime in the story. When the casket was wearied, they becomes worried that why are they wearing him coffin, they feel that father will get irritated because they have completed this thing without his consent, what rationale they will bestow to father and then the blast of stick of the father comes to their ear, they think it is bad to bury their father because their father will get sad from them that why have they buried him, they were treating their dead father as alive man rejecting the reality that he is farther, but the truth was the father was vulnerable and lying life-less even the remains is in the lead of them but they do not deem the reality that he is dead and this becomes more severe when these girls becomes extremely terrified , when father was getting buried they blubber and think that father will never pardon them.

"Buried! You two girls had me buried!" She heard his stick thumping. Oh, what would they say? What possible excuse could they make? It sounded such an appallingly heartless thing to do. Such a wicked advantage to take of a person because he happened to be helpless at the moment. And Constantia, pale as a lemon in all that blackness, said in a frightened whisper, "Done what, Jug?" (pg5 to pg 6)

"Let them bu-bury father like that," said Josephine, breaking down and crying into her new, queer-smelling mourning handkerchief. (Pg6)

The change comes in tongue due to psychological effect.However, they choose to bury him but are extremely horrified .

As the story progresses the phase of denial is felt more when they come from the funeral and are sitting in taxi ,are thoughts about the father, when they sat in taxi they say it is currency consuming and father will not like it because it is extravagant, why they do not deem that father has crooked into dust because of the mental disparity, the dead body cannot think, cannot speak but they keep on denying the exactness and feels the father’s subsistence all the time.

.Henceforward they enters father’s room, they had a sudden realization that they are going to father’s room devoid of knock because when he was alive, they use to knock the father s door but now they remain still because they cannot go without knocking .father s charisma has enormously captured their mind .

It was dark in the hall. It had been a rule for years never to disturb father in the morning, whatever happened. And now they were going to open the door without knocking even...Constantia's eyes were enormous at the idea; Josephine felt weak in the knees. (pg6)

finally they enter the fathers room which is full of father s tenure the portrayal of the late father’s room is given and his belongings. Constantia eyes were preset in bed ( feeling that father is in the bed ) Josephine tells that do not gaze to bed, there is no one, father is dead which hurts Con, why is it throbbing con because she thinks father is there in bed in the same way they feel father everywhere in every object of the room suddenly Constantia weeps that father is in the chest of drawers and he is breathing, but there is no one .

"She had the most extraordinary feeling that she had just escaped something simply awful. But how could she explain to Constantia that father was in the chest of drawers? He was in the top drawer with his handkerchiefs and neckties, or in the next with his shirts and pajamas, or in the lowest of them all with his suits. He was watching there, hidden away–just behind the door-handle–ready to spring." (Pg7)

Feeling that father was everywhere, shows there deep emotional attachment to their father and their love, like crying every time after father and missing them, becoming emotional and thinking about father shows their emotional attachment and psychological effects on their mind and their behavior Mr.Farolles tells them that they should have saintly association means with god because he thinks that it will give rest mentally and tranquility to their torn spirit, but they do not give any comeback to the clergyman they were so nervous.

The girls becomes psychological due to the society too which was treating them differently due to the death, for example Kate and Nurse Andrew treatment with the girls changes through the course of the story results in modify in the girls mind because they were supposed to be in peaceful state of mind by providing a calm and serene atmosphere to make them forget about what happened to their father by supporting them ,giving them pity and care, but the environment testifies their situation makes them more disturbed by the people mentally torturing them due to the negative attitude of the society which was social consequence of the death which leads to the more psychological torture of the mind which in turn is due to the death and the society.

Even two mornings after two mornings after the funeral, they are still stuck in the phase of denial and they cannot fetch themselves out of the puddle of the father past and memories. They still tend to do things in a way, which perfectly suits their father temperament. They even tend to preserve, or feel guilty for not preserving, the conventions which were set and observed during the Colonel s life time. For instance, when the Colonel was alive, it was a convention of their house to maintain the dark in the hall by not drawing apart the curtains for years until the Colonel was up from his daytime slumber. however, even after his being delivered to the hands of death, they maintain the dark in the hall and it takes a tremendous deal of courage from them to open his room’s door without knocking at it as in the story:

It was dark in the hall. It had been a rule for years never to disturb father in the morning,Whatever happened? And now they were going to open the door even without knocking even …Constantia's eyes were enormous at the idea; Josephine felt weak in the knees."You—you go first," she gasped, pushing Constantia.But Constantia said, as she always had said on those occasions, "No, Jug, that's not fairYou are the eldest. (pg. 6)

When the daughter’s drift themselves towards the room, a sensation of feebleness strikes the knees of Josephine while the eyes of Constantia are wide open due to the strange nature of the impending tasks opening the door without seeking the fathers permission here Mansfield has shown how sometimes excruciating emotional pain can show up its mile science in the physical constitution of an individual.

When they entered into the room, its atmosphere was too unfamiliar to let them believe that it is a part of their home. This lack of familiarity shows how their notions and perception about the world change and how the familiar world surrounding then turns into land of bewilderment after the abstraction of just one principle figure the father. The temperature of the room drops down and a wave of coldness penetrates through their bodies with piercing affect. Actually, the physical conditions of the room duplicate their emotional conditions the frosty weather pairs up well with the loss of the daughters’ emotional warmth and sense of security.

One of the daughters feel the door is shut too tightly behind them and she even feels the doors is no more and everyday entity rather it has became a strange noblest door like the one which is seen at nightmares and a sign of entrapment or imprisonment here this noblest feature of door symbolizes the two girls emotional and imprisonment and it suggest how the two have been barred from the external world of reality by enshrouding their inner self and a sheet of self deception and self induced denial of the loud and clearly reality that the colonel is death.

It could not be helped. That girl was... Then the door was shut behind them, but they were not in father's room at all. They might have suddenly walked through the wall by mistake into a different flat altogether. Was the door just behind them? They were too frightened to look. Josephine knew that if it was it was holding itself tight shut. Constantia felt that, like the doors in dreams, it had not at all .it was the coldness which made it so awful or the whiteness which? Everything was covered. (p.7)

Josephine and Constantia go too far in their denial of their old man’s death when they foster a desire in their hearts to be haunted by his spirit. They are so much obsessed with this strange desire to have him around that not being haunted by his ghost almost disappoints them.

Girls denying the reality, not taking the actuality seem throughout the whole story. This agitation in their mind and thinking too much about the father was leading them towards depression, feeling father in every entity of the room rejecting father to be dead, lamenting chuckling, which makes them weak in decision-making. The environment makes them more perturb like the guest and the servant performance which changes with the death of Colonel makes them more nuisance that is why through the start of the story, it is revealed that their minds were anywhere else and they could not take have a break because they were not having a peaceful mind. They did not paid any consideration to future but were source of revenue in past, tensed and complex in taking decision shows the psychological effects caused due to the death and but at the end they settle to it and becomes normal which will be discussed in next chapter.

Chapter 6

How death leads as wisdom for the characters in daughters of late colonel. They become educated that death is in nature, so they persist with their regular life and accept it, so the transformation which death brings from denial to acceptance and this dramatic shift is the outcome of the story and wisdom. The denial rests throughout the story and the phase of acceptance is in the end of the story the characters progresses and the story moves forward to a conclusion and makes them a revolutionized person, and they start accepted wisdom about the future.

Life is full of miseries and hardships because the unexpected always happens , life is full of surprise .Sometimes the situations becomes so critical that it becomes rigid to swallow and the person doesn’t make out what to do .Such things happens which cannot be projected but the person learns to manage with grief by time because it heals the person s heart. When miseries comes , the person never knows and never thinks that such thing will happen but with the passage of time ,the person learns to cope with the worst circumstances by itself. Hardships are fruitful in a way because they give an individual such sagely wisdom which he cannot acquire in the time of ease .

After the one week of Colonel’s death, they see their mother’s photograph, sunbeams spray on her photograph and they feel that deceased people pictures fades away with time which means that they realizes that we cannot preserve the memories of dead forever. The dead have to lie under the layers of dust while we have to proceed with our lives in a normal manner in their absence.

Why did the photographs of dead people always fade so? Wondered Josephine. As soon as a person was dead their photograph died too (p15)

The girls thinking that dead people vanishes and alive people have to live .They have to carry on with their life .They learns the lesson that they should not cry or think all the time about dead people because they have disappeared and have become a part of soil .so the amend comes in their approach towards life shows that they have become optimistic and positive towards the demise means thay have elapsed what ensued in the history .

Mean while they hear a barrel organ which is played in the street and they hear it without any worry or fear of the father that he would get disturb, the stick of the father will never thump it is having a symbolic significance of wisdom.(pg 15)

" Then they remembered. It did not matter. They would never have to stop the organ grinder again. Never again would she and Constantia be told to make that monkey take his noise somewhere else. Never would sound that loud, strange bellow when father thought they were not hurrying enough. The organ grinder might play there all day and the stick would not thump.

It never will thump again, played the barrel-organ." (pg 15)

When father was alive ,he used to hurl the girls to bring to an end the music when it was played in the avenue. The girls use to like the melody but for the sake of father they use to bring to a close it that father will get bothered by it. The girls for second think as a routine to stop the music but then they stop themselves because they think that dad is no more to be bothered by it and they can prolong their life and get over it. This means that they accept that their father is down with death , so there is no need to stop the music they can continue with the music means they can continue with their normal life and they take it as usual. they hear the melody and enjoys it .(pg 15)

Because Josephine and Constantia are not bursting into tears more and they are not lamenting but are hearing to song and realize that time can repair all the sore .She was smiling and not crying so time mends the loss and Constantia is happy .So they get wise that time of grief has disappeared .

What was Constantia thinking? She had such a strange smile; she looked different. She could not be going to cry.(pg 15)

When they were hearing the music within the music they were feeling that it is a week from the time when father died, it is a week in view of the fact that father die. They accept the reality that father is no more and accepts that death is in the nature and they feel that the stick of the father will never thump. He will never be able to stop the music they can hear the music before they were mourning the father’s death and now they are listening to the music. (pg15).

The realization that father has expired and a week has conceded means the time of grief has passed so they are no more in bereavement and the father would never get livid on the music because he is dead now shows the value of the patriarchal command of the father which has moved out with the death and it shows that instance restore the trouncing and the memories of a dead person cannot be potted .When some one dies he goes to another world and cannot come back so one has to carry on the life those who are alive .

Jug, Jug," said Constantia softly, pressing her hands together. "Do you know what day it is? It's Saturday. It's a week to-day, a whole week." A week since father died, (Page15)

This is the acceptance phase which means that death and decay is the natural commencement of life and earth so the girls are not in psychological trauma , not in depression ,not in mourning and are not weak they smile which is the positive reaction towards death

The change which comes is that the girls become optimistic because they think about the upcoming before they were considering the past and were pessimistic. Josephine beam as she puts her watch on the Buddha, the sentiment of hope the change from hopeless to hope, that is from darkness to lightness which is seen when rays spreads through her whole room which is having a emblematic significance that this change is a good one that is the positive approach towards the life, by not thinking about what happened in the history, not thinking about family which shows it is part and not thinking about Ceylon, father, but they think about themselves.

The girls think about themselves that how will they have to carry on with their life .They together be seated and call each other that they need to talk about the upcoming so in this way they start considering about themselves and then they think of the matrimony.

When they start considering about themselves , they reflect of their marriage and they imagine if mother was living, they may have got wedded before they were dedicated to father, they dedicated their life to father because of the love for him but when father expire they think about the marriage and they wish to be married. When father was alive they were not thinking about wedding ceremony ,but with the death of father they think of marriage ,they become mature and gets wisdom.

"If mother had lived, might they have married?" (pg 16)

The two girls were weak in administrative and organizing the home because they were not consistent to it, because of the father who was the head of the family was doing each and everything, it took them very difficult to decide the pretty matters but then at the end they formulate it for example the decision of expelling the servant Kate and they learned how to control the home mainly the home expenses, they becomes calculated and were every time taking care of not costs the money because it will result in everyday expenditure so they care not to buy ready made foods, not to spend money in the death ceremony of Colonel, when they sat in taxi they realize that it is excessive.

The girls administration was shown when they were not having a good servant and they let her be in the home .She was not doing her job properly and the girls were no taking any step towards kate but at the end they call on for each other , they council about the issue and takes a step so it takes time to choose about this little issue but they are weak in dealing with people because of the difficult circumstances and they were weak in organizing the home .

The tremendous alteration comes in Josephine .She was naive of herself that she is spending a worthless life without purpose .Josephine thinks about how have she spend her life in vain and for nothing , this is the change which death brings from innocence to maturity .She has become a practical woman and has started thinking about life before she was numb .She couldn’t respond and never had consideration about herself and life She then imagines that how she spended her life .She goes and thinks about her history. She could n’t get married for father because she loved her .She thinks about her past life when she was crucified means not wedded and when she use to come out of the bed and stand by sea side when the moon was full. (pg16)

" Until the barrel organ stopped, playing Constantia stayed before the Buddha, wondering, but not as usual, not vaguely. This time her wonder was like longing. She remembered the times she had come in here, crept out of bed in her nightgown when the moon was full, and lain on the floor with her arms outstretched, as though she was crucified. Why? The big, pale moon had made her do it." (Pg16, )

The change when she thinks about her future.Through out the whole story Constantia personality was shown very feeble and weak .Josephine was redirecting things to Constantia because her intellect was awfully fragile .The change in Constantia comes in the end , Constantia was a girl who was always flaking tears .She was the sufferer and always gone astray by dream worlds .When father was burying .we see speech of her when she was stuttering .It was showed that she will remain the same because she was the girl who couldn’t get out of the situation , a sufferer , Josehine was the elder and a tad stronger than Constantia, Constntia was not having her ownself but was following Josephine we see for the first time Constantia thinking about future and asking Josephine to come . Constantia comes to her sister and tells her that she wants to talk to her sister which was s significant and was about upcoming .so Constantia s growth was also due to death .

" She turned away from the Buddha with one of her vague gestures. She went over to where Josephine was standing. She wanted to say something to Josephine, something frightfully important, about about the future and what . . ." (pg 16)

Constantia s maturity is seen when she thinks about her past life when father was alive and she couldn’t get wedded because she loved him but as death came and snatched her father so now there is no father so she is thinking about her marriage .Constantia thinks that life in past was not actual because she never ever thought about herself it was she who use to come into the moonlight and sea standing single and never thought about herself , her marriage but now she thinks of her marriage , her future the questions she asks and she thinks that life was not real it happened in a kind of channel .(pg 16 )

"It has happened in a kind of tunnel. It was not real. It was only when she came out of the tunnel sin to the moonlight or by the sea or into a thunderstorm that she really felt herself.

What did it mean? What was it she was always wanting? What did it all lead to? No "( Page.16 ,)

Moonlight stands for the history and sunlight stands for the upcoming .Moonlight is the symbol of the despair and sunlight is the symbol of the high expectations.

"On the Indian Carpet there fell a square of sunlight , pale red ; it came and went and came_and stayed deepened _until it shone almost golden ".(pg 15)

"The sunlight [pressed through the windows ,thieved through the windows , thieved it s way in , flashed its light over the furniture and the photographs .Josephine watched it".(pg 15)

So the journey from the moonlight to daylight shows the change from hopelessness to hope .at the end when it is shown that sunlight spreads through the whole room and everything , a smile comes in Constantia and when she thinks about herself that past life was a kind of tunnel and she asks the questions that what did it mean ? what did she wanted ? and what did it leads too ?

(pg 16 ) these were the questions which was asked by her .she gets adult .the realization of spending a life without a purpose without and she says further :

There had been this other life, running out, on approval, discussing them with Jug, and taking them back to get more things on approval, and arranging father's trays and trying not to annoy father. But it all seemed to have happened in a kind of tunnel. It was only when she came out of tunnel into the moonlight or by the sea or into a thunderstorm that she really felt herself. What did it mean? What was it she was always wanting? What did it all lead to? Now? Now? (pg 16 )

The girls think when they use to gratify father , making his serving of food and making him accepted about the things and trying not to infuriate father , she thinks that life passed in fulfilling the orders of the father and she couldn’t get time to think about herself because she devoted her whole life to her father .She thinks that what she wanted and what was the purpose of all this and what did it lead too .As father dies she got mature (pg16)

So that is why for the first time they think to have a life partner but they think they cannot get married . they think that how they are weak in communicating with people because they have been never ever tracked by any man .they never meet the contrary gender .they have met sole man and that is the clergyman and there were father s friend anglo saxon but Colonel fighted with them and no one has tracked them realizes that how weak is their social life this realization was after the Colonel s death when he dies and the girls thinks of marriage and when they realize that why they cannot get married and then the sun rays falls on her.(pg16).

"But there had been nobody for them to marry. There had been father's Anglo-Indian friends before he quarrelled with them.But after that she and Constantia never met a single man except clergymen. (pg 16 )"

. Realization that they are weak in communiqué .The Realization of their weaknesses comes at the end of the story , when they assume to get married but they cannot get wedded because they cannot met the opposite sex.

"but after that she and Constantia never met a single man except clergymen. How did one meet men?" (page 16).

we were told in the story that One day when Colonel was alive, they requested Cyril and made him cake for nephew Cyril and he discarded to eat t