Miss Brill Analysis

In the story "Miss Brill," an old, lonely lady spends her Sunday observing people in a park. Although ignored by everyone around her, Miss Brill manages to convince herself that she is really an integral part of the scene and would be missed if she weren't there. Her illusion is shattered by a chance remark at the end of the story, and she returns home, clearly devastated by her new understanding of her place in life. What this story is trying to illustrate is that sometimes people can be happy through living in an illusion. However, this kind of happiness is fragile and can be easily destroyed.

As a little girl, I saw the world in the best light simply because innocence clouded my judgement. As a child, I was innocent of mortality, as a teen hope, and as a young adult love. However, later on that innocence took on the role of ignorance. Not in the sense of not being knowledgeable or educated on the matter, but rather knowing it all too well that I choose not to acknowledge it. Innocence can be served as an instrument to block out surroundings when problems arise. It is an illusion of reality to protect what the individual desires to be true to what is actual. In Wendy Cope’s poem “Reading Scheme,” Cope writes about an affair more from the perspective of children by using the villanelle form to illustrate the inability of the

Cunning. Crafty. Creative. Cruel. “Charles”, written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, is a rather chilling short story about the vulnerability of a young child’s imagination, about the fantasies of the human mind, about the manipulation of humans, and about the insidious dangers of change. Jackson’s horrific tale stealthy kidnaps the oblivious reader from their seat and takes him or her on a non-stop ride that begins in a simple family home and ends in the darkest corner of the human imagination. By manipulating the innocent thoughts as a young boy into those of a grim reality, by employing innocence to camouflage hypocrisy and duplicity and by hiding behind the faultless nature of a young imagination to hide the insidious nature he possesses,

Children’s literature can take many forms, from far-fetching science fiction to spell binding who-done-it mysteries. One of the most popular ideas presented in these various forms is that of escapism. The characters in these stories explore quite complex social issues in ways that are less confrontational then realism. One might consider why escape is such a central theme; as a child there are numerous benefits to fantasy, it allows readers to experiment with different views of the world and takes hypothetical situations and invites them to make connections between this fictive scenario and their own reality. John Stephens an English professor at Macquarie University has said “ Fantasy writing operates through metaphor- so that the unfamiliar is used to stand in for, or comment upon, the familiar.”

An individual’s self-perception has the power to convince them that life is much more fulfilling through illusions then facing their own reality. When a person is unable to reconcile the conflict between their illusions and reality, their illusions may be altered to meet the truth of their existence. However, when reality reasserts itself, an individual may not be able to reconcile with the conception that their illusion is not an actual reality but just an imagination. An imagination could conceal the sufferings that an individual may be enduring. Sufferings can put a burden of emotions on an individual and make them feel like there’s no place for them in the world. In the short story, Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield, the character of Miss Brill upholds an idea to live in a world of illusions. Her illusions allow her reality to disappear but her reality is nowhere near the imaginary world she is living in. Therefore, when a person is desperate for a better sense of reality rather than a lonely and tiresome one, they will try to produce their own illusion and obscure their reality, to live in their own illusion.

She meets Miss Temple, her teacher who turns into one of her first true friends. Jane describes how she feels around her teacher as, “...I derived a child’s pleasure from the contemplation of her face, her dress, her one or two ornaments, her white forehead, her clustered and shining curls, and beaming dark eyes… (Bronte 133)” Jane emphasizes the color of Miss Temple’s forehead to show that she is innocent too. She also does not know much about the world, but yet she is teaching children what they need to know to be educated for their adult lives. Having a role model figure like Miss Temple allows Jane to look up to a woman who has managed to achieve her goals and maintain her innocence. In addition to this, the use of white also highlights this first friendship as a beginning for Jane and the theme of innocence. A new chapter of life starts as Jane meets people who will treat her as she deserves to be treated. However, Jane still longs for the good parts of life before Lowood, “That night, on going to bed, I forgot to prepare in imagination the Barmecide supper of hot roast potatoes, or white bread and new milk, with which I was wont to amuse my inward cravings… (Bronte 109).” Jane does not want to go back to Gateshead, but desires the

Furthermore, McEwan uses symbols alongside, motifs such as the Trials of Arabella in order to explain Briony’s mindset as a child. This suggest and supports the idea that Briony being young is unable to fully grasp and understand her surroundings.

1. Early in the essay, Carl T. Rowan describes Miss Bessie as five feet tall and no more than 110 pounds. While explaining how she doesn’t seem physically threatening, Rowan notes she had a “towering presence in the classroom. She was the only woman tough enough to make me read Beowulf” (411). Rowan’s resistance towards reading Beowulf led to him learning about Miss Bessie’s large brown eyes, that resembled “daggerish slits” (411). Rowan describes his former teacher in a way that resembles someone who is looking up to an authoritative figure. Whenever he comments on her appearance or personality, it he does in a very respectful context. Just by the way Rowan often talks about Miss Bessie, it’s obvious the amount of respect and admiration he has

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

In “Miss Brill,” Katherine Mansfield utilizes Miss Brill’s thoughts and actions and the surroundings to characterize Miss Brill as a lonely character. Mansfield immediately introduces Miss Brill with a very odd scene that shows her conversation with the fur coat. This quickly and effectively establishes the type of person Miss Brill is. As a result, Mansfield suggests that Miss Brill is a lonely and an “abnormal” person to illustrate to the audience how society treats those who are not considered “normal” through the later actions of a young couple.

McEwan effectively shows that “She would.simply wait on the bridge,calm and obstinate, until events, real events, not her own fantasies, rose to her challenge, and dispelled her insignificance.” (77) Though it is not possible to see the world in a subjective way through Briony’s contemplation, Briony as an author is confused between what is true and what is not.Through the juxtaposition of Briony’s false perceptions, McEwan is able to showcase the importance that perception has on the understanding of the truth.

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.

Burney seems to be criticizing the double standard treatment of people who lacks "class" and those who has high status. She disapproves the conduct of people in the novel who have the characteristic that appears to be "changing with the tide." Mrs. Beaumont's character is satirically described as the "absolute Court Calendar bigot." (pg. 284) Her idea of class is illustrated by her belief that birth is virtue. Her previous association with Evelina let her to believe that Evelina is a woman of quality. However, she is soon disappointed to find out that Evelina is a "mere country gentlewoman"(pg284). Similarly, Lady Louisa and many other social elites who reside under the

that [Gradgrind] has missed or forgotten” (152). In her essay “The Literary Imagination in Public

Is imagination more valuable than experience? The speaker asserts that since people who lack experience are free to imagine without limitation of fixed facts, imagination is a significant character for human beings. To some extent, I agree with this statement because individual’s knowledge is constrained, and we cannot solve problems merely based established habits and attitudes. In most cases, we need to employ imagination to help us achieve the goal.