Miss Brill Symbolism

In the essay ‘The Box Man’ Ascher invokes many stylistic devices and rhetorical strategies to portray her message that you should accept loneliness. The devices she uses include the rhetorical strategy “Ethos” and the stylistic device Anecdote. She uses many more which will be discussed later in this essay. She portrays the message “accepting loneliness” throughout the whole piece and even provides real life examples to support her message. These Examples include The Box man, the Soup lady, and the Television lady. All of these examples are lonely Individuals however, they go about it at different ways. The Box man chooses to accept loneliness and the other two ladies don't accept it and therefore live miserably.

Miss Brill and Sandra are both alienated by their community, but they do not seem to do much about it. Sandra seems to be isolating others instead of the other way around. During her own party, she “[refuses] to allow [people] into her kitchen”. She believes other people are strange and avoids them. Miss Brill also goes through a similar experience. She goes to a park because she “always looked forward to [listening] to [other] conversation”. She is lonely

Loneliness and exclusion from society hurts and affects everyone; the emotional strain a person endures from it creates the image they present to others, but deep down they are not the display image they manufacture. As an illustration, while opening up to Lennie in the barn Curley’s wife states, “I get lonely… You can talk to people, but I can’t talk to nobody but Curley. Else he gets mad.

A high school girl carried her feet along into the cafeteria, half past noon. Blue denim jeans and a chunky sweater is her outfit. She finds the nearest empty table, which happens to be in the corner, takes out her lunch and starts munching along. Not much expression is found on her face. A blank stare the whole forty minute lunch. It looks like she doesn’t have many people to talk to. This girl must be lonely. She is not the only person who experiences loneliness. Being lonely is extremely common. Loneliness is a major theme throughout the story, Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck. In the 1930s, Steinbeck powerfully portrays many characters to be lonely, which causes people to have depression and anger.

In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell the story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses is Miss Strangeworth’s roses. As they are described those roses were passed on from her grandmother. Roses appear to be beautiful, though they have thorns all along their stem. This can be related to Miss Strangeworth because although she seems like a little nice old lady, she sends malicious letters anonymously to the people of her town. Also, a possibility can be that the act of sending letters to the people could have been passed on from her grandmother just as her roses. As a result, when the roses were ruined so was her act of sending the letters. Another symbol is Miss Strangeworth’s own name.

Iman Manzoor Ms. Foster 9 Honors English 11 January 2016 Loneliness is a part of life. It is human nature to have a friend or companion to talk to, to share things with, and to help one get through the good and bad of life. When this person is absent, one tends to feel lonely and isolated. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is a good example of this.

In the start of the short story, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson adds several symbols to tell the story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses is her last name, Strangeworth. The name Strangeworth is very odd and automatically makes the reader identify her as someone who is strange. As the story goes on, we learn more about Miss Strangeworth and how her name really identifies her as a character. Another important symbol in the short story, is the street Miss Strangeworth lives on, Pleasant Street.

“Why can’t I talk to you? I never get to talk to nobody.” These are the words of Steinbeck describing loneliness on the ranch in Of Mice and Men. Steinbeck makes an image of loneliness appear as the words are read from the page. The loneliness in the novel is not caused by abuse or a broken heart, but by socially imposed barriers. The barriers were never really made, they are more a ranking of social power over anything else.

At some point in one’s life there is not only contentment or grief, but a state of loneliness. Loneliness is a part of human life, although some suffer from isolation more than others. Being lonely can lead to depression or create a different persona in oneself. Struggling through isolation can eventually kill one’s soul, expecting no hope or ending up in dangerous situations. The novella Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck portrays the theme of loneliness especially through two characters. Crooks and Curley’s wife experience the state of isolation as they crave for a friend or someone they can talk with. Steinbeck urges readers to feel pathos when analyzing Crooks and Curley’s wife through the nature of their isolation, their actions and

Though isolating one’s self from others from time to time can be healthy, those who experience isolation will inevitably crave intimate connections with others, which, unfortunately, is something that not all can achieve. The short story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, shows the effects that loneliness and isolation can bring to those who struggle with it. “Miss Brill” deals with the elderly, solitary title protagonist, who spends her Sunday afternoons the exact same way, with the exception of one Sunday afternoon to which her reality finally catches up to her. While Miss Brill finds herself surrounded with an abundance of people and lively music, she still finds it difficult to engage with those around her. Through this text, Mansfield

This quote leads you to the imagining Miss Brill goes through. I just picture her putting on this fur, playing dress up and becoming part of this whole other life every Sunday.

Miss Brill illustrates the personalities which she is detached from society and overly sensitive. The ``little dear thing`` fur symbolizes how detached and unstylish she is.

From the beginning of the story, it becomes apparent that Miss Brill is the epitome of the definition of lonely. She starves to have just a little warmth and companionship. In the story, she has a fur necklet that she tenderly caresses as if it were a pet that she rubs “the life into the little dim eyes” (Mansfield 175). Loneliness in Miss Brill is also shown through the music in the park. The loneliness is shown through her perception of how the music is “like someone playing with only the family to listen” (Mansfield 175). The whole time, Miss Brill thinks of herself as part of this family playing the music, but in reality she is just an on-site observer. On this particular Sunday, it was the first day of the Season so the band seemed “louder and gayer” (Mansfield 175). However, Miss Brill is somewhat disappointed that there are only two people near where she is seated (Wilson 2: 136) Because they do not talk, her little world that she is rebuffed by that world and her fantasy falls apart (Wilson 2: 140).

The novel carries the recurring theme of loneliness throughout. The loneliness in the, foreshadows the loneliness in the characters of the novel.

Shenli Song College of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang Gongshang University Office of Foreign Language College at Zhejiang Gongshang University Xia Sha City-University-Town, Hangzhou 310018, Zhejiang, China E-mail: windyforever@gmail.com Abstract Katherine Mansfield, remembered as one of the finest writers of English short stories, enjoys enduring fame and a somewhat awesome literary status with her short stories, Miss Brill as one of her representative pieces. The interest of our Chinese critics, in general, locates more in the modernist techniques and devices she employs to present the inner world of the characters in her stories,