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Comparing Miss Brill And The Fly By Katherine Mansfield

Satisfactory Essays

Realize the Life Everyone must has some unpleasant experience in his or her life. In these two stories, both protagonists feel sad about their lives. Miss Brill in "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield is an old lady who suffers from the isolation, and the boss in "The Fly" by the same author loses his lovely son. However, the boss remains further from reality at the end of the story. The first element that shows the boss remains further from reality than Miss Brill is the difference between their background. The boss has a friend named Woodifield, who has the similar experience as the boss, whereas Miss Brill doesn't have any families or friends around her, so Miss Brill has to face the fact by herself. Therefore, the boss is easier to choose to escape from his son's death. These cause their behaviors different in latter plot. Miss Brill is welling to go out gives her a better chance to notice the reality than the boss. In the stories, Miss Brill goes to park alone on every Sunday, and thinks people look like "They were all on the stage"; however, the boss just stays in his redecorated office, and "rolled in his office chair" with his stout body. According to the boss doesn't go to visit his son's grave, Miss Brill is more able to realize the loneliness and sadness in her mind than the boss. Therefore, the boss escapes from the reality more …show more content…

"When she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying" shows a change on Miss Brill, and that tells us that she realizes her reality about the isolation in her life after hearing the couple's conversation about her. However, the boss realizes nothing, even though he also cries for his son. The only thing the boss does at the end of "The Fly" is he kills the fly, but doesn't tell the boss chooses to face his son's death or not. Therefore, the boss is the protagonist who remains the furtherest from reality at the end of the

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