Miss Brill Mood

“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty…” (Courtesy: Anonymous). Anybody in the world can be lonely and be filled with loneliness when they do not have someone to interact with or talk to. In Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, characters deal with loneliness throughout the course of the book. Through the characterization of the characters Candy, Crooks, and Curley’s wife the author reveals the theme of loneliness.

All kinds of people will feel loneliness and sometimes the innocent feel the most lonely. From the people who are bitter like Mrs. Dubose or people who have an atmosphere of eeriness, like Boo Radley. Even the cowardly like Mayella Ewell have loneliness in their lives. The ageless novel To kill a mockingbird teaches one of the many prevalent lessons, that everyone experiences loneliness. Harper Lee clearly shows that loneliness exists in the community of Maycomb through the characters Mayella Ewell, Boo Radley, and Mrs. Dubose.

Steinbeck uses the example of Lennie and George being paired together and looking after each other, to almost offset the whole idea of loneliness in the fact that they have each other. Steinbeck also constantly

While at the park, she feels that it is a place that she belongs. The sense of belonging is shattered when the young couple makes a harsh and petty remark. This is the moment that the character of Miss Brill is revealed. She starts to feel conious of her age and her place in the world. In a instant her dreams are annihilated and her world starts to crumble around her.

In the first half of the twentieth century in American Literature, writers often portrayed characters who experience varying degrees of loneliness. The loneliness in the story could of portrayed how the authors felt in real life. In a lot of story the author creates a character from his personal experiences. The authors in this time period could have been lonely in the world and made their character lonely to a degree.

Loneliness is an emotion that stems from its opposite, a relationship. The strongest emotions can be found when one feels wronged, such is the how a relationship and loneliness can be. Steinbeck creates a complex emotion with loneliness in the way he applies it to his characters. Steinbeck’s character’s loneliness is associated with a relationship they are in, or were in previously, and is an underlying emotions in their decisions.

In “Miss Brill,” Katherine Mansfield conveys a character, that is naïve and old, named Miss Brill. When one reads this short story, he or she would tend to sympathize over this character. Analyzing this character is going to be the key aspect, in understanding this short story. Mansfield creates a character that has an enthusiastic/ optimistic, old/ passive, and lonely/ independent personality.

Living inside of her own head, within a fiction story writing by herself, has caused an arousal of vulnerabilities within her. These vulnerabilities have caused her a blindness towards the harsh truth outside of her mind. An example of her changing her view is noted when she arrives at the park and finds her “special” seat. She sits down and touches her fur, comforted by its presence around her neck. “She could’ve taken it off … and stroked it”, (98) thinking of her fur as more of a companion that an accessory. An elderly couple shared Miss Brill’s seat. It was disappointing to her that they did not speak, for she was always looking forward to a conversation. This Sunday seemed normal to her, with the people in the crowd of the band rotunda being described as “odd, silent, nearly all old, and … looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or even – even cupboards!” (99); Miss Brill did not see these people in the same category in which she places herself. She wanted to shake the old lady sitting next to her, as still as a statue. Miss Brill twists her perception again, seeing herself as an actress on the stage that is the park setting. The crowd becomes the cast of this play, with the band orchestrating the actions of everyone involved. “It explained why she made such a point of starting from home at just the same time each week – so as not to be late for the

     At the end of the story, Miss Brill is sitting at her usual spot, absorbed in her fantasy and enveloping the idea that she is an actress in a play, and the park was the stage. And if for some reason if she weren’t to show up,

For example, when she goes to the park, she has a “special” bench at the park and constantly touches the fur that she has around her neck. The fur represents some sort of presence she feels within the fox fur. She see’s her fox fur as a companion that goes with her around the park. Ignoring reality, she sees a character and personality within the lifeless fox that she refers as the “little rogue!” Another indication that Miss Brill hides her sad reality is seen in her perception of others versus herself. While observing the park, Miss Brill sees all the elderly people sitting on the bench who share the same tradition as her; going to the park to watch and listen to others. She doesn’t see herself as being in the same group as them instead, when she sees others performing the same acts as she does, she finds them as “odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they’d just come from little dark rooms.” She refuses to see her own reflection in the mirror of the elderly people she sees at the park. In the same way, Miss Brill twists her perception as she begins to see herself being an “actress.” The park then becomes a stage, the band orchestrates interactions, and the crowd becomes the cast for the scene she imagines as being “exactly like a play.” When using this method, she provides herself with a sense of significance,

Miss Brill is a story about an old woman that lacks companionship and self-awareness. She lives by herself and goes through life in a repetitive manner. Each Sunday, Miss Brill ventures down to the park to watch and listen to the band play. She finds herself listening not only to the band, but also to strangers who walk together and converse before her. Her interest in the lives of those around her shows the reader that Miss Brill lacks companionship.

In this portion of my research, I will be talking about the theme of Miss Brill. The theme of the short story is the contrast of illusion and reality. As you read the story, the reader gets to explore the theme of loneliness. At first, you can tell Miss Brill might be lonely as the way she describes her pulling out her fur stole out of the box, Zweig (2012) stated “rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes” (p. 219) meaning she gives her fur stole a voice and emotions, when in reality, it’s just materialistic. She continues to stroke it and carries it with her throughout the story, which Mansfield uses to reveal that she does not have any other friends or family to socialize with. Miss Brill lacks movement in her life as she describes, Zweig (2012) stated “the air was motionless” (p. 218). Miss Brill goes to

Miss Brill is a middle-aged woman who wears a fur coat to the park every Sunday. She speaks to the coat as if speaking to another person. Miss Brill sits in the park watching and listening to the band and to the people who sit around her. She loves to eavesdrop on people without their knowing. This time, a old man and an old woman sitting near her do not speak, and this displeases her very much because she has nothing to listen to. Then she sees a gentleman in grey and a woman wearing an ermine torque. The couple makes small talk while Miss Brill thinks of what they might say. They part ways before anything interesting happens. Then she comes up with a theory that everyone is on a stage, and that everyone here is an actor. She believes that

The reader is first introduced to Miss Brill during her trek to the park on a chilly autumn afternoon. At first glance, she appears to be haughty and materialistic. She dons a red eiderdown that she personally groomed for the purpose of wearing it to the park, and frowns at those “other

Miss Brill is a solitary woman who spends her Sunday in a park, relating in vivid details the happenings around her. She is dressed in a fox fur, though the weather does not call for it, as she believes it to be representative of her high status. She admires the music around her, thinking it to be reflective of her experiences. An old couple is seated on her bench, and she is dissatisfied that they are not talking since she enjoys eavesdropping on their conversation. Her attention switches to others in the park, the children, a beggar, all who she describes as looking strange. She notices a young girl trying desperately to gain a man's attention but fails. Though the girl seems happy and quickly moves on, Miss Brill instead concentrates on