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Father James Flynn
Old Cotter lives with the narrator and the narrator’s aunt and uncle. He is only present in the story at the very beginning, when the narrator first learns that Father Flynn has died. Old Cotter expresses marked disapproval of the narrator’s relationship with the priest, saying that a young man should spend time with people his own age, and should focus more on things like exercise than on religious or esoteric studies. Notably, Old Cotter also seems to imply that Father Flynn may be pedophilic. He says that there was “something queer” about the priest, and that he thinks it was “it was one of those…peculiar cases…” implying that the priest has engaged in some sort of immoral activity. Old Cotter’s comments about Father Flynn irritate the narrator, who thinks to himself that Old Cotter is a “tiresome old fool.” However, not long after this, the narrator admits to himself that Father Flynn did make him somewhat uncomfortable, which leads readers to question if Old Cotter’s suspicions may have been merited.
Old Cotter Quotes in The Sisters
The The Sisters quotes below are all either spoken by Old Cotter or refer to Old Cotter. 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:
).
The Sisters
Quotes
“No, I wouldn’t say he was exactly…but there was something queer…there was something uncanny about him. I’ll tell you my opinion…”
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“Though I was angry with old Cotter for alluding to me as a child I puzzled my head to extract the meaning from his unfinished sentences. In the dark of my room I imagined that I saw again the heavy grey face of the paralytic. I drew the blankets over my head and tried to think of Christmas.”
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“It may have been these constant showers of snuff which gave his ancient priestly garments their green faded look for the red handkerchief, blackened, as it always was, with the snuff-stains of the week, with which he tried to brush away the fallen grains, was quite inefficacious.”
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Old Cotter Quotes in The Sisters
The The Sisters quotes below are all either spoken by Old Cotter or refer to Old Cotter. 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:
).
The Sisters
Quotes
“No, I wouldn’t say he was exactly…but there was something queer…there was something uncanny about him. I’ll tell you my opinion…”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Though I was angry with old Cotter for alluding to me as a child I puzzled my head to extract the meaning from his unfinished sentences. In the dark of my room I imagined that I saw again the heavy grey face of the paralytic. I drew the blankets over my head and tried to think of Christmas.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“It may have been these constant showers of snuff which gave his ancient priestly garments their green faded look for the red handkerchief, blackened, as it always was, with the snuff-stains of the week, with which he tried to brush away the fallen grains, was quite inefficacious.”
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