Dmitri's Three Sisters

Character Analysis

More specifically, Marguerite, Laetizia, and Carolina… not that it matters much. The three sisters are more of a family backdrop than real characters. They fill out the Desgoffe und Taxis family, and seem mostly innocent and kind of impossibly naïve—even though Gustave does refer to them as "ghastly, deceitful children" who will be "dancing like gypsies" at their poor mother's death.

The sisters also have a habit of answering questions directed toward them at the same time, making it impossible to hear what anyone is saying. At the surprise of Gustave getting Boy with Apple they simultaneously exclaim: "tax-free?" "the van Hoytle?" "she can do that?"

In response to Kovacs' astonishment at his cat being tossed out the window, they cry: "I don't think—" "Did he?" "Jopling?" And, of course, when Dmitri discovers the missing portrait: "I thought you'd hidden it," "Why are you only noticing now?" "I assumed it went to the tax appraiser."