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Mr. Farolles
Benny is Constantia and Josephine’s brother and Cyril’s father. He works in Ceylon, like his father, the colonel, and has the habit of shaking his right hand “up and down, as father’s did when he was impatient.” His sisters debate sending their father’s old timepiece to him, but ultimately decide to send it to Cyril. Benny has not seen his son recently and is not close with him—nor is he close with his sisters.
Benny Pinner Quotes in The Daughters of the Late Colonel
The The Daughters of the Late Colonel quotes below are all either spoken by Benny Pinner or refer to Benny Pinner . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Daughters of the Late Colonel Quotes
“Is your dear father still so fond of meringues?” asked Auntie Con gently. She winced faintly as she broke through the shell of hers.
“Well, I don’t quite know, Auntie Con,” said Cyril breezily.
At that they both looked up.
“Don’t know?” almost snapped Josephine. “Don’t know a thing like that about your own father, Cyril?”
“Surely,” said Auntie Con softly.
Cyril tried to laugh it off. “Oh, well,” he said, “it’s such a long time since—” He faltered. He stopped. Their faces were too much for him.
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Though Cyril takes his family’s dysfunction for granted—answering his aunts’ questions about his father’s preferences “breezily”—Constantia and Josephine seem unaware that their brother and nephew are not close. Confined to the domestic sphere, where they have been attending to their father for many years, Constantia and Josephine do not recognize how deeply divided their family has become. Mansfield depicts the Pinner family as an archetypal modern family, cut off from traditional principles (especially Victorian values of propriety and family ritual) and torn apart by forces of modernity, including imperialism—since Benny is a colonial administrator who lives away from his son—and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligend
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Benny Pinner Character Timeline in The Daughters of the Late Colonel
The timeline below shows where the character Benny Pinner appears in The Daughters of the Late Colonel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel
...allows herself to be led by Constantia, who smiles as she did when she pushed Benny into the round pond.
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...straight out of the kettle. Josephine wonders what they should send of their father’s to Benny, but she notes that it’s difficult to know what to send to Ceylon, since there...
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The sisters remember their brother Benny on a verandah, dressed in the costume of a colonial administrator. His right hand would...
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...while—though it has never come in handy for anything. Yet it would be strange for Benny to open a corset-box and find the watch inside. Constantia remarks that the watch no...
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...appropriate for the only grandson to have the watch. Cyril would appreciate the gift, and Benny likely no longer wears watches, since men don’t wear waistcoats in hot climates. Cyril, though,...
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...offers Cyril a meringue, noting that Cyril’s father was fond of them. Constantia asks if Benny is still fond of meringues, and Cyril replies that he doesn’t know. Josephine wonders why...
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...an “imbecile” as he smiles at his grandfather. Josephine remarks that Cyril has said that Benny is still fond of meringues. The colonel doesn’t seem to hear her, even after she...
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