Fredy Vanegas Ramos – Code: 20141165066

Patricia Escalante

Literature I

Miss Brill Analysis

Introduction

In the following paper, I intend to show various aspects regarding to Katherin

Mansfield’s Miss Brill. For this purpose, the theory given by David Lodge is how I pretend

to unveil this short story. Firstly, taking from the chapters, 1, 6, 12, and 14 from Lodge’s

The art of Fiction, I will link and analyze the main aspects found inside Mansfield short

story.

By the way, the plot in “Miss Brill” whom I can infer is an English teacher, as in the

story states: “had quite a queer, shy feeling at telling her English pupils how she spent her

Sunday afternoons” (Mansfield, 2015), as I infer she lives near the Public Gardens in a

French town. The narrative follows her on a regular Sunday afternoon, which she spends

walking about and sitting in the park.

The story begins with Miss Brill who is an English teacher living near the Public

Gardens in a French town as the narrative follows her on a regular Sunday afternoon, which

she spends walking about and sitting in the park. Miss Brill decides to wear her fur and go

out. She notices that there are more people going to the park than the last Sunday, and that

the band play cheerfully because the season has started. Miss Brill observes the people

around the park, "listening as though she didn't listen, ...sitting in other people's lives just

for a minute while they talked round her". She sees the world and the park as a play: as
though her surroundings are a set and she and the people who are also in the park actors.

She thinks that the band's performance goes along with the things happening in the park.

Then, a young couple arrive and sit next to Miss Brill's bench. Anyway, she hears

the boy make a rude remark about Miss Brill being a "stupid old thing", and the girl agrees,

"It's her fu-fur which is so funny” the girl said.

Finally, the story ends with Miss Brill who usually on Sundays will stop by the

bakery, but on this day, she goes straight home to her room. As she returns her fur to its

box, Miss Brill "thinks she hears something crying".

Development

Beginning

According to the first chapter of David Lodge’s “The Art of Fiction”, a story may

begin in different ways: “A novel may begin with a set-piece description of a landscape or

townscape that is to be the primary setting of the story.”(Lodge, 1994). The first two lines

are a clear description of a landscape in specific the day through the eyes of “Miss Brill”

“Although it was so brilliantly fine--the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of

light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques” (Mansfield, 1922). By the way,

the narrator describes once again the sensations felt in the park “The air was motionless, but

when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced

water before you sip, and now and again a leaf came drifting--from nowhere, from the sky”

(Mansfield,1922).

In Miss Brill, I found out that the story starts in this way, describing not only the

landscape, but also, sensations and feelings. The hook, is the descriptions and what she
called “the fur” it also refers to her life as she called:” She had taken it out of its box that

afternoon” (Mansfield, 1922).

Then I can say the beginning for Miss Brill is marked by glimpses of what the

character “Miss Brill” sees and the way she perceive part of her happenings on a Sunday. I

could also say that the character Miss Brill views and perceives the world in very positive

way and she is fantasizing about the people of the park most of the time. Also, I see that

Miss Brill taking out a fur and “…[rubbing] the life back into the dim little eyes”

(Mansfield, 2015) of the animal. In a sense, this metaphor about the fur represents Miss

Brill’s life, she is putting some excitement into her life and starting her day in a positive

way. Then, as she heads to the gardens, she notices everything around her, little, seemingly

insignificant, details. She enjoys her Sundays and she tends to create stories in her head

about everyone that passes her. Thus, I see how Miss Brill creates this ideal world of

fantasy around her by distorting what is actually surrounding her. I think this could be the

result of the woman’s loneliness and, as it goes later in the story her sense of rejection and

profound sadness. 

Point of view

Additionally, “Miss Brill” is written from the third-person omniscient point of view,

Mansfield allows us both to share Miss Brill's perceptions and to recognize that those

perceptions have a direct influence on Miss Brill. Hence, according to Lodge:

The choice of the points of view from which the story is told is arguably the most

important single decision that the novelist has to make, for it affects the way readers will

respond, emotionally and morally, to the fictional characters and their actions.
(Lodge, 1994, p.26).

This third person viewpoint, allows readers into Miss Brill’s mind and was the right

choice in order to convey Mansfield’s message of the story. Another example of

personification is at the end of the story when Miss Brill is putting away the fur she “…she

thought she heard something crying” (Mansfield, 1922), suggesting that the fur itself was

crying. This is another situation where Mansfield uses personification to represent Miss

Brill. As Miss Brill makes this comment about hearing something cry, this is actually a way

of demonstrating how Miss Brill feels. After having been insulted by the man in the park,

“Why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home?" (Mansfield, 1922) Miss Brill feels hurt

and rejected and as though something inside her is crying. Mansfield’s use of

personification in this instance only helps to further the reader’s understanding of Miss

Brill herself

If readers were not able to know Miss Brill’s thoughts and feelings, and to hear and

see what she hears and sees, the same aspects could not be implied. For example, by only

knowing Miss Brill’s thoughts, the narrator was able to create this fake world in Miss

Brill’s eyes that lead to a deep understanding of her loneliness and inability to differentiate

perception and reality.

The stream of consciousness as used by Mansfield is particularly interesting. We are

able to paint an accurate picture of Miss Brill, through her opinions of those around her.

Those views are against the identity of Miss Brill. For example, Miss Brill tries to separate

herself from the people in the park she finds uninteresting, and describes the old people as

looking as if they came from "cupboards". Miss Brill's room is later compared to being

"like a cupboard", and from this we learn that Miss Brill too is an old woman. Her keen
interest in the ermine toque, the ermine toque's interaction with a "man in grey" and her

eventual rejection by this man, compares with Miss Brill's own experience of rejection later

in the plot. 

In this way, is how I got a sense of loneliness and a sense of rejection, because the

way it is written and the point of view given by the author makes those feelings arose. I

could also feel that Miss Brill was unable to differentiate perception and reality as I have

stated previously the author focuses on the point of view of this lonely woman.

Sense of Place

On top of that, the role of the sense of place on a narrative according to Lodge is: “

…that description in a good novel is never just description.”(Lodge, 1994). The setting of a

story is always the combination of two elements:  place and perception.  "Miss Brill" is no

exception; therefore, I will analyze both elements of setting in turn.

First, the place in "Miss Brill" is ironically specific and not specific at all.  It is set in

France, in an unnamed town, but specifically in the "Public Gardens" of that town.  It can

also be implied that it is a small French town. I think is French because Mansfield uses the

French term "Les Jardins Publiques". As it follows: “The blue sky [was] powdered with

gold and great spots of lightlike white wine splashed over the Jardins

Publiques.”(Mansfield, 1922)
 I think this line is important to the setting because it is part of the very first line of

the story and immediately establishes the specific Public Gardens as part of the not-so

specific town setting in France.

In addition, we can infer the time in which the story that it is set in daytime at a

park.  This is important because Miss Brill enjoys looking at passersby and observing them

closely.  However, the most important aspect of time is that "Miss Brill" is set in in France.

“Miss Brill” as a character bears an ominous feeling. When Mansfield wrote the story is

after World War I and before World War II. It is the time "between the wars" as a reader, I

felt the tension of the time. In the following passage, a description of the setting and the

way Miss Brill fell is noticed:

The air was motionless, but when you opened your mouth there was just a faint

chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip, and now and again a leaf came

drifting--from nowhere, from the sky.  Miss Brill put up her hand and touched her fur.

(Mansfield, 2015),

Afterwards, “Miss Brill” leaves the park and goes home. She does not even stop at

the bakery for her Sunday treat. Instead, she goes straight to her “little dark room— her

room like a cupboard,”(Mansfield, 1922) which again connects her to the old, silent people

on the park benches whom she has imagined as having come from just such rooms. She sits

on the bed and puts her fur away in its box, but as she does, she hears something crying.

She has now withdrawn so far from the world that has hurt her so much that she does not

realize that is she who is crying. In this way, the narrator connects the parks, the bakery

visited by Miss Brill and finally her sad room.

 Introducing a Character

Miss Brill is the protagonist in the story because it focuses on her and her weekly

routine of going to the park. Besides, in the story the young couple in love are the

antagonists because they bring her back out of her fantasies and cause conflict in the story.

Such as the man who lights the cigarette and goes away not noticing “Miss Brill” at all, or

the couple she observes and make her feel uncomfortable. As for the flat characters, I could

tell those are the ones who visit the park on Sundays along Miss Brill.

  The narrator exposes a series of figures who act as parallels for “Miss Brill”. At the

Jardins Publiques she sits beside an old couple who are as ’still as statues’ (Mansfield,

1922), and she notices the other regular visitors to the park ’There was something funny

about nearly all of them. They were odd, silent, and nearly all old (Mansfield, 1922). Those

characters are flat because they do not have a direct influence on the story. The most

extended view which she has of any other visitor to the park is of “a single woman in an

ermine toque ’bought when her hair was yellow. Now everything, her hair, her face, even

her eyes, was the same colour as the shabby ermine, and her hand, in its cleaned glove,

lifted to dab her lips, was a tiny yellowish paw.” (Mansfield 1922) The woman described

there is a foil character due the link between the furs—dead animals retaining the

appearance of life. Miss Brill is linked finally to another elderly man to whom she reads the

newspaper. This last one is also a flat character.

By the way, from the beginning, Mansfield presents Miss Brill as a dynamic

(changing), round (full range of emotions, reactions, motivations) character. I could feel

that Miss Brill is a character rather optimistic, observant, and sensitive, and has split her life
in two; in her head and another life in reality. I think it is thanks to the loneliness and lack

of friends that characterize her real life; she develops delusional and fantastic internal life,

replacing real relationships with the things she observes during her Sundays in the park,

and even personifying her fox fur necklet as a “rogue” companion.

Additionally, according to lodge: “Clothes are always a useful index of character,

class, life-lifestyle…” (Lodge, 1994) in Miss Brill, clothes play a major role. As most of the

time, the main character is describing the way the others look even herself with her “fur”

coat. In addition, I think the clothes are symbolic throughout the story. Miss Brill describes

almost everyone she takes a special interest in based on his or her clothing. From the "two

young girls in red" to the "gentlemen in grey" clothing to Miss Brill is one's identity, and

explains why she has such a strong attachment to her old fox “fur”. The Ermine Toque is

also described on a woman based on her clothing, her "shabby ermine and gloves".

As well as the young couple who are flat characters as they just insult her

mentioning her physical appearance by describing Miss Brill as old, and describes her fur

as "funny". This I think this shows that this idea of inferring one's identity through clothing

is not unique to Miss Brill, and is actually common practice, we as humans tend to judge

the outside most of the time.

Conclusion

From this story, I can conclude that our perception of reality can often be

misunderstood due to personal circumstances. In addition, one can learn from this story the

harsh reality that society is not as forgiving and caring, as we all desire it to be. There are

many Miss Brill in this world and while they must learn to reach out and see reality, the

people on the outside must appreciate that they do not know everyone’s story and
background. Those individuals must learn to be accepting of others regardless their

circumstances. The true message of this story is that our own inner-selves are our toughest

battle; if we are not comfortable with ourselves we cannot be comfortable with our

surroundings. This will, therefore, ultimately lead to an inability to differentiate perception

and reality forcing one to learn the hard way what true reality is.

Nevertheless, I think everyone feels loneliness in a different way, each one has to

deal with oneself, with the heavy burden of one’s thoughts. Regarding to loneliness I think

that it is quite different the way men and women feel and cope with this feeling, but I will

say is stronger in men|.

Bibliography

Lodge, D. (1994). The art of fiction. London: Penguin Books.

Mansfield, K. (2015). Miss Brill. London: Penguin Books.