Miss Brill Essay

Miss Brill is forced to confront the truth: she is growing old and lonely and the world is becoming a cruel place for such people. She takes a detour from her usual trip to the bakery back to her “dark little room...like a cupboard” and puts away her necklet, as she “-heard something crying.” Her only escape from her lonely existence has shattered as she is confined to the isolation in her cupboard-like home. She no longer takes pride in her necklet nor feels the desire to treat herself to a slice of honeycake. Mansfield further elucidates the impact of the couples’ remarks by ending the story with the heart wrenching tears of Miss Brill.

The tragedy of the story rests in that she does not see herself as this. She describes some of the other people in the park as "... they were nearly always the same, Sunday after Sunday, and - Miss Brill had often noticed - there was something funny about nearly all of them. They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd come just come from dark little rooms or even - even cupboards!" (Mansfield 259), this is exactly what she is. Not only does this

Mansfield describes the importance of the fur to Miss Brill when she states that “Miss Brill put up her hand and touched the fur [. . . ] She could have taken it off and laid it in her lap and stroked it” (page 182). By describing the delicacy of that which Miss Brill caresses her fur, Mansfield implies that Miss Brill possesses great love for her fur, a love atypical to the fondness people ordinarily show toward their garments. Miss Brill has an atypical love because she and the fur exist as one; the fur symbolizes Miss Brill.

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 most important symbol was the Public Gardens, which represented a stage where she sat and pictured nonexistent events as she fought back her loneliness. After Miss Brill took her usual “special seat” (65) at the Public Gardens, she began “sitting in other people’s lives . . . while they talked around her” (65). She began with the elderly couple adjacent to her by eavesdropping on how the wife refused to wear spectacles claiming that she “wanted to shake her” (66). These events directly illustrated how she created her own

Throughout the course of the story Miss Brill undergoes a drastic change sparked by her overhearing the rude younger couple behind her. The couple describes her as a “stupid old thing” and voices that nobody desires her

Continuing on, following a detailed social commentary on those around her, a wonderful epiphany strikes Miss Brill; an event that reinforces her developed façade of reality. Fascinated by how the occurrences of the day was comparable to a play, she acknowledges that herself and those around her are “all part of [a] stage” (4). She claims that “she had a part and came every Sunday” and how “somebody would have noticed if she hadn’t been there” (4), revealing her true desire of belonging within a larger body of people

She missed her Sunday treat. I believe she was upset and felt sad about what she overheard. I feel like Miss Brill talked and judge other people based on her own deep feelings about herself, maybe she is upset about the person she is. I think Miss Brill now knows how it feels to be lonely and depressed just like the people she viewed as being the same way. Ending with the quote she stated went into the little dark room - her room like a cupboard - and sat down on the red eiderdown. She sat there for a long time. The box that the fur came out of was on the bed. She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying; page 221 paragraph 17. I realized from that moment, Miss Brill was feeling uncertain about

Sunday evenings sitting on a park bench, observing people is what she looks forward to in life, ”Miss Brill always looked forward to the conversation. She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn’t listen, sitting in on other people’s lives just for a minute while they walked around her” (Mansfield 182). Miss Brill admires couples with devoted relationships and is jealous of them, too. To be like the fancy women walking around at the park, Miss Brill decides to pull out her old fur from the attic. The fur, having been neglected, is covered in moth powder.

The details as told, seem to be coming directly from Miss Brill at times. The narrator gets us settled into the park with Miss Brill and tells us that she sees those around her 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!” This tells me that Miss Brill sees herself differently than she sees others, not odd or funny. She is a part of all this life and activity at the park! An actor in the grand play and “somebody would have noticed if she hadn’t been there.” She really loved to be out with others and thought that she was very much a part of the world and not apart from it. Don’t we all feel this way? Some people are truly introverted and care little of interacting, but I think the majority of us strive to become part of the world and at times feel like this life is one big drama and we have a big part. Our role might only be important for one scene, but we feel like the leading man or woman at times. The narrator leads us to what appears to be a fitting climax; a crescendo of music and song, with all players involved. Miss Brill’s dreams of this were quickly shattered. The comments by the young people, “Why does she come here at all-who wants her? Why doesn’t she keep her silly mug at home?” leaves Miss Brill with the cold realization that she is in fact like the odd, old people that she watches in the

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,” is told through a third person limited omniscient point of view. Through this we do not know the emotional state of Miss Brill. At first Miss Brill comes off as a convincing character who we can symptomize with, but as we read on, we see that her perception is completely unrealistic. The story begins with Miss Brill getting ready to go on her Sunday trip to the park. She is deciding what to bring with her, when she pulls out this old box. What is inside is an old fox fur, “What is happening to me?” (100) she asks, as she took the fox out to stroke it back to life. It was like she sort of knew that she was taking pleasure in the only thing she cared for, which is only a non-living object. But she shook it off and carried on and placed the fur around her neck and headed to the park.

     Miss Brill intricately observes every little detail of the happenings around her illustrating the extent to which she has lost a grasp on reality. She makes note of everything from attire and attitudes, to body language and actions. Brill takes a kind of pride in her ability to eavesdrop. “They were 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 - little cupboards!” (Mansfield 99). Miss Brill excludes herself from the rest of the people. Even when elderly people come into view, she quickly distances herself from them as though different when in fact she too is old and resides in a cupboard of her own. Brill associates and relates herself to only the younger and more attractive people. The people which society deems the most acceptable. “Now everything, her hair, her face, even her eyes , was the same color as the shabby ermine, and her hand, in its cleaned glove, lifted to dab her lips, was a tiny yellowish paw. Oh, she was so pleased to see him- delighted!” (Mansfield 98) Miss Brill describes her and her

She tries to preserve the fur by keeping it in a like-new condition but she admits that the life has dim in “the little eyes” of the fur because she has to polish them in order to restore the life back. By keeping the fur in like-new condition, she also is keeping the vitality of life. Just like the fur, Miss Brill life lacks vitality but she receives it each time she takes the garment out and wears it on her Sunday afternoons to the park. She is a woman who lives an unfulfilled life, she finds that she receives fulfillment each time she chooses to dress-up in her fur and spend her afternoon at the park. It is there that her life is not only vital but becomes a play, inside her head. Mansfield described her as having “. . . felt a tingling in her hands and arms . . .” (Mansfield 1). She not only feels that her life is vital by her afternoons in the park but also she finds excitement. If she has to look

Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” appears merely to give a glimpse into an elderly woman’s life brought down into shambles by a young couple’s conversation, but Mansfield’s story highlights a disorder of dissociation in elderly people due to loneliness in their lives. Mansfield’s emphasizes this point through her showcase of Miss Brill’s lonely characterization, limited omniscient point of view, and ominous setting. These literary elements stage the treatment and mental being of elderly people symbolized through the unassuming Miss Brill.