Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill Essay

Firstly, the two main characters in this story, Kitty and Stew, are crucial elements of the story to present its theme. When Kitty was a child, her and Stew were intimate. She would laugh at her father's jokes about playing with the hairs of his nose. (Gaitskill, 290) This

Elizabeth Strout’s novel, Olive Kitteridge, is filled with stories about the lives of regular people in Crosby, Maine. Throughout the stories, different characters are faced with adversity they are forced to deal with. While some handle their problems well and are able to cope with their hardships, others, even those with good intensions, do not find a happy ending. The story “Tulips” encapsulates the a recurring theme of the book; life is uncertain and takes us down roads upon which we had never imagined ourselves having to travel, and while these obstacles may very in their severity, it is how one is able to cope with their individual adversity that will ultimately determine their happiness.

Another indication that Miss Brill has an epiphany is when Miss Brill puts away her fur. “She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on it she thought she heard something crying” (page 4). This represents her putting away her fantasy world and her fantasies about being an actress. In the beginning of the story, Miss Brill takes her fur out of a box and brushes its coat, polishes its eyes, and talks to the fur as if it’s a living thing. This shows the audience her poor mental state and how lonely she really is. The narrator tells us that Miss Brill liked the way the fur’s eyes looked sad at her and how soft the fur was. By the way that the narrator describes the fur as old and shabby, and the way that Miss Brill cares for the fur we understand that the fur represents Miss Brill and her fantasy world. It is also inferred that the crying sound is Miss Brill herself. Also Miss Brill putting away her fur is representative of her loss of innocence and her gaining insight to what her life is really like.

In the Bedford Introduction to Literature, Characterization is defined as "... the process by which a writer makes that character seem real to the reader"(2126). In order to do this a writer has multiple tools at their disposal that add to the depth of a character and simplify roles in a story. This includes the use of Protagonists and Antagonists, static and dynamic characters, showing and telling, and motivated and plausible action, as well as many others. The short story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield is no exception to this and displays the main character of Miss Brill as the protagonist, who is confronted with the reality of her existence.

The kitten also has symbolic uses, adding to the message conveyed by Barton. Cats, historically are represented as intuitive and independent. Freely expressing themselves and not relying on other for comfort. With the kitten in Barton’s image, desperately clawing at the woman’s hand, and the woman holding the kitten close to her chest, it signifies the urgent attempt for the woman, or women in general, to pertain to sexual

In Ernest Hemingway’s haunting short story “Soldier’s Home” and Katherine Mansfield’s insightful short story “Miss Brill”, both isolated characters, Krebs and Miss Brill, experiences the many pratfalls of their solitude. Krebs and Miss Brill are both victims of isolation but for different reasons. They deal with different types of isolation, family support and perception of reality that hinder them from fully assimilating in to the present reality around them.

In “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, the reader is given a sense of the way that Miss Brill perceives the world around her “like white wine splashed over” the Jardins Publiques she visits every Sunday. Miss Brill is optimistic and inquisitive about the lives of the other visitors to the park and from her “special seat” weaves herself into their stories eavesdropping on their conversations to form her own opinion of the quality of their lives (Mansfield 1). We learn the reality as the story progresses, that her perception of others and most importantly herself is skewed and when hit with the harsh reality that her world is not as wonderful as she perceives she feel shame and sadness for her lonely life.

The story "Miss Brill" was written by Katherine Mansfield in 1920. The story is about a lonely, elderly woman making her weekly visit to the park where she spends her Sunday afternoons. She enjoys hearing the sound of a band playing and the soothing atmosphere surrounding her, but most importantly she enjoys engaging in the lives of other people through observing and listening. The story focuses on Miss Brill’s isolation of herself into the illusion of her own mind, an internal conflict which is made worse by her loneliness. In the end, when Miss Brill is insulted by a couple who questions her presence in the park, she becomes dynamic, demonstrating the story’s theme that loneliness should not allow us to isolate ourselves into the fantasies

This quote shows again that Miss Brill takes joy in being an observer of her surroundings. This suggests that she may be trying to distract herself from her own loneliness because she tries to stay included and feel like she is a necessary person who is an integral part of others’ daily lives. This contributes to the meaning that society has a lack of care for these type of people because no one in the surroundings really care

For a long time, the aging Miss Brill, an English teacher, sees people as actors and their daily lives as a play. Miss Brill is forced to confront the reality that her imagination has so long prevented her from seeing. In Katherine Mansfield’s 1920 short story “Miss Brill,” Mansfield shows how illusions do not last forever in the face of reality.

In the short story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, is a story about a day in the life of Miss Brill. Miss Brill has a huge imagination and lets her mind wander far from reality. The story reveals how Miss Brill sees herself through her own eyes, a glamorous actress who likes to think of herself as needed. Then it continues to reveal how Miss Brill is actually seen in reality through everyone else's eyes, a shy, lonely, old lady that is infact not needed at all. The differences from Miss Brill's actual life and her life she imagines is very different.

She pays attention to the smallest details. "Wasn’t the conductor [of the band in the park] wearing a new coat, too? She was sure it was new. He scraped with his foot and flapped his arms like a rooster about to crow… Now came a little ‘flutey’ bit—very pretty!—a little chain of bright drops. She was sure it would be repeated. It was; she lifted her head and smiled" (98). Even if she’s only an observer, Miss Brill is an involved observer. She draws enjoyment from simply being in the park atmosphere. However, her enjoyment is more than a passing mood. It’s actually an indication of a deeper emotion—a kind of happiness. This becomes clear after Miss Brill has paid close attention to several small exchanges between people at the park. "Oh how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all!" (99). That Miss Brill does not actually participate in anything is clear to the reader, but not to her. Vicarious involvement in other people’s lives seems to be fulfilling for her, even though there is no actual interplay with others. The most telling evidence that Miss Brill is happy (and that her happiness is based on a false impression) is when she comes to the conclusion that she’s somehow needed at the park. "No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn’t been there; she was part of the performance after all… Miss Brill nearly laughed out loud" (100). This realization eventually moves Miss Brill to

Miss Brill is a single woman, probably in her mid to late fifties. She lives alone in a very small space without even a cat or bird. She has a collection of vintage clothing. Her physical appearance is only alluded to in the 18-paragraph short story by Mansfield, but in reading about a day in her life, one has the impression of an intelligent, sensitive

Miss Brill saw the people sitting at the benches as, “odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or even-even cupboards!” (87), the way that Miss Brill is describing all of them is exactly what she is herself. She is old, silent, and stares but she does not think that way because she puts herself into everyone else’s lives. When she overhears people talking and when she makes up scenarios in her head of the people walking by she believes that she is actually in that world, but overhearing the young couple talking bad about her made her snap back into reality and realize that she is just like those people and at the end of the story even refers to her room, “like a cupboard”

Katherine Mansfield’s short story, Miss Brill, is a well-written story of an elderly, unmarried woman in Europe. In Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield uses stream-of-consciousness point of view to show alienation and loneliness, appearances and reality, and Miss Brill’s perceptions as she attempts to make herself fit in with the park goers. Miss Brill is an older lady who makes a living teaching English to school children and reading newspapers to an “old invalid gentleman” (Wilson 2: 139). Her joy in life comes in her visits to the park on Sunday where she is notorious for “sitting in on other people’s lives” (Wilson 2: 140). It is there that her ritualistic, monotonous journey that Miss Brill refers to as a “play” takes place.