Miss Brill Isolation

The short story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield follows the isolated life of Miss Brill as she is forced to come to terms with her reality.
Lonely and isolated, Miss Brill is a French woman who only looks forward to her weekly Sunday outings to the Jardins Publiques. One of Miss Brill’s key characteristics is her red eiderdown which she cares for greatly. “She has taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, give it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes.” The red eiderdown symbolizes Miss Brill and how these Sunday outings are the highlight of her week, showing just how isolated and out of touch she really is from the world. “She had really become quite expert, she though at listening as though she didn’t listen, at sitting in other people’s lives, just for

Rather than engaging in conversations of her own, Miss Brill prefers to observe the other people and listen in to their conversations instead. Although she is constantly surrounded by people in the park, she is still very isolated. She takes pride in the fact that she has gotten so good at listening to other people’s conversations, rather than realizing how she is further isolating her and preventing herself from living life to the fullest. Another defining characteristic of Miss Brill is that she is very concerned with the way she looks and her age. “They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they’d come from dark little rooms or even-even cupboards.” This shows how insecure Miss Brill is about her age and not fully aware of everything in her life. Both Miss Brill and the old people in the park are silent, not engaging in any conversation, and just observing others going about their daily lives. She looks down at the other old people at the park, and fails to realize how similar she actually is to them. She seems to think that by showing disdain towards the other old people will prevent her from being like