Symbolism In Miss Brill, By Katherine Mansfield

1154 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The character of miss brill

Miss Brill is a short fiction story written by Katherine Mansfield, which was first published in November 1920 in Athenaeum, an English literary magazine and then in Mansfield’s The Garden Party & Other Stories. The story takes place during a Sunday afternoon as an elderly woman enjoys her weekly visit to a French park. She enjoys watching others and sitting in on their lives, while the band plays in the gazebo. This story, written in the third person omniscient point of view, is told with a stream-of-consciousness narrative, as Miss Brill is revealed through her thoughts about others. Through the use of symbolism and imagery, Mansfield shows the psychological complexity of her character’s experiences of everyday life and the loneliness caused by the alternate reality she created.
Miss Brill, the main character of this story, is in the beginning happy with her life and her situation. The reader can feel her excitement for the day to come in the first line of the story. “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 – Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her fur” (Mansfield, par. 1). The fur represents everything Miss Brill has and doesn’t have; she treasures it and addresses it as “Dear little thing” or “Little Rogue”. This little piece of garment is the only thing in her life that she cares enough about to share her Sunday ritual with; it is more to her than an accessory. In fact, she is reassured and comforted by the presence of the fur around her neck: “Miss Brill put her hand and touched her fur. […] It was nice to feel it again” (Par. 1). The fur also ironically symbolizes everything she doesn’t have in her life: advent...

... middle of paper ...

...hing appears to happen in this story, not so far under, Mansfield makes Miss Brill go through different worlds, real and unreal. The author conveys the sadness and pain of such a life by exposing an ironically dull and raw character, a person that everyone could know but would not understand. The beautifully structured story is such “a fine harmony of irony and symbolism” (Thorpe 663) that the complexity of the main character could only be revealed by the use of imagery. As Miss Brill realizes her life was a series of lies and acting, she withdraws herself from the world that has hurt her, a fall without an end.

Works Cited

Mansfield, Katherine. “Miss Brill”, The Garden Party & Other Stories. 1922. Print.

Thorpe, Peter. “Teaching Miss Brill”, College English, Vol.23. 1962. Web. 8 April 2013.

Show More
Related

  • Miss Brill: Reality vs. Perception, Which One?

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the short story, “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, the author introduces Miss Brill as a lonely and a putting on her fur scarf, and getting ready to go to the park. As she sits on the bench and listens to other people talk, she imagines herself as an audience watching the people in the park as if they are on stage. Miss Brill believes that all the action going on in the park, such as the little boy giving the thrown-away violets back to the woman is just a play. However, a closer look at Miss Brill reveals a character that is unable to distinguish between perception and reality.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    Everything was great, every day was the same except that particular day when your life

    Read More

  • Comparing 'Miss. Brill And The Destructors'

    1190 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miss. Brill is an older woman who is depicted as lonely because she sits by herself in the park and listens in on other people's conversations. Mansfield says, “This was disappointing, for Miss. Brill always looked forward to the conversation. She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Ballad Of Birmingham

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    There is no safe place in the world. “Ballad of Birmingham” proves that by telling the tragic tale of a young girl and her mother. No matter what a building symbolizes or how much determination is spent on keeping love ones safe, life or destiny will occur. “Ballad of Birmingham” approaches the bombing of Birmingham in 1963 from a sentimental point of view, providing a unique insight into the story. The story of a mother and daughter, as described in the “Ballad of Birmingham,” cannot be understood unless the loss of a loved one has been experience first-hand.

    Read More

  • Miss Brill, by Katherine Mansfield

    1099 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miss Brill’s loneliness causes her to listen in on conversations. This is her only means of achieving a sense of companionship. She feels that for a moment she is “sitting in other people’s lives just for a minute” (98). Aside from that, she is part of no one’s life.

    Read More

  • The Yellow Wallpaper Isolation Essay

    253 Words  | 1 Pages

    In "Miss Brill" and "The Yellow Wallpaper", the plot for both short stories consist of a female who is suffering from isolation. The short story "Miss Brill", the main character, who is an English tutor, wears her fur stole to the park. Every Sunday she attends the park to watch the live performances from her special seat. She believes that she is a part of the performances to a point where, "Even she had a part and came every Sunday"(Mansfield 268). Yet, one day she attends a performance and she is subjected to ridicule by a young couple sitting next to her. After, she returns home dejected and lonely. In "The Yellow Wallpaper", the narrator develops depression after the birth of her baby. Her husband, John who is a physician, misdiagnosed

    Read More

  • Symbolism In A Worn Path By Eudora Welty

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... on foot and that alone is hard as it is. Eudora Welty shows her theme that with an adequate amount of determination and confidence we can tackle any problem or obstacle that is thrown our way and go the extra mile to reach our objective that we had set. Of course being restrained by time and age, Phoenix still fights and steps forward to a goal which is very significant to her heart; she doesn’t allow any barrier get in her way. Phoenix Jackson being the main character of “A Worn Path” is clear

    Read More

  • Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    Loneliness plays an extremely large part of Miss Brill’s life and can be proven by things in the story. An example of Miss Brill’s lack of companionship is when she visits the park on Sunday’s. Not only did she look forward to listening to the band but she also looks forward to seeing what is going on with the lives of the others. “She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn’t listen, at sitting in other people’s lives just for a minute while they talked around her.” The reader can clearly see that she has perfected eves dropping as if it was a talent. Unlike those who take interest in chess or a game of spades her game consists of listening in on others and then acting as if she isn’t. She has found herself living vicariously through others by eves dropping in on conversations that do not include her. Sometimes she finds herself taking parts of these conversations and begins to role-play as if she is an actress.

    Read More

  • Unveiling Mrs. Mallard's Paradox: Freedom in Death

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    Like in many tragically true stories, it would seem Mrs. Mallard 's freedom came too late. Kate Chopin’s, “The Story of an Hour” begins by introducing Mrs. Mallard as a person afflicted with heart trouble. The story builds on this by having Mrs. Mallard’s sister Josephine and her husband Richard explain the situation in a very sensitive manner. Their efforts would prove to be in vain however as Mrs. Mallard then proceeds to emotionally break down. The news shocks Mrs. Mallard to her very core and has her at odds with how she should feel now that all was said and done. After coming to terms with her situation, fate delivers its final blow in a cruel and deceitful ploy towards Mrs. Mallards. And with that, Mrs. Mallard 's dies. In her hour of change Mrs. Mallard 's was delicate, thoughtful and excitable.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Soldier's Life And Miss Brill

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Miss Brill was also very delusional, she believed that she was playing a part in a play “They weren 't only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday” (Mansfield, 310). That was Miss Brill’s way of making an excuse as to why she had a routine. She is not facing the certainty of her life. By the end of the story, it seems that Miss Brill vicissitudes by breaching her routine “But today she passed the baker 's by, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room - her room like a cupboard - and sat down on the red eiderdown”(Mansfield, 311). Miss Brill comprehends just how sealed in and miserable her life truly is. She is left in the isolated world which is her

    Read More

  • The Feminist Struggle in Katherine Mansfield’s Short Stories

    2631 Words  | 6 Pages

    Social and internal dialogue is representative of the enculturation process that Laura and Miss Brill have been exposed to. Both of Mansfield’s short stories represent a binary: Laura’s realizations of...

    Read More

  • Symbolism in The Scarlet Letter

    1650 Words  | 4 Pages

    "The common definition says that a symbol is a sign or token of something… We take symbols like these pretty much for granted. They are a part of everyday experience. In literature, matters are a little more complicated. Literary symbols usually don’t have instantly recognizable meanings. Rather they take their meanings from the work of which they are part" ("The Scarlet Letter" 8). An example of symbols that most take for granted would be the rosebush, which Hawthorne selects a flower from as an offering to the reader, to the elfish child Pearl, to the scarlet letter A; these are all symbols that Hawthorne uses. The average reader may take it for granted, but each symbol within this novel has a purpose. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses all of these symbols to build his story, to make it come to life. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is created around the different symbols within the novel.

    Read More

  • The Aging Process in Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story opens with Miss Brill's excitement that the "season" has arrived for social engagements; perhaps it is the tourist season when the ladies debut their latest fashions. With all the expectancy of a young girl looking forward to courtship, Miss Brill unpacks her prized and most fashionable possession, the ermine fur. While unpacking the fur, the reader is aware that Miss Brill is lapsing into elderly nostalgia because she speaks to the fur in such delighted tones. Miss Brill refers to her ermine fur as her "Little Rogue"(182). We learn that the ermine fur is fragile and in disrepair; we sense that Miss Brill is, to...

    Read More

  • Point of View in Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    The point of view that Katherine Mansfield has chosen to use in "Miss Brill" serves two purposes. First, it illustrates how Miss Brill herself views the world and, second, it helps the reader take the same journey of burgeoning awareness as Miss Brill.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard in The Story of an Hour

    1047 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Mallard’s repressed married life is a secret that she keeps to herself. She is not open and honest with her sister Josephine who has shown nothing but concern. This is clearly evident in the great care that her sister and husband’s friend Richard show to break the news of her husband’s tragic death as gently as they can. They think that she is so much in love with him that hearing the news of his death would aggravate her poor heart condition and lead to death. Little do they know that she did not love him dearly at all and in fact took the news in a very positive way, opening her arms to welcome a new life without her husband. This can be seen in the fact that when she storms into her room and her focus shifts drastically from that of her husband’s death to nature that is symbolic of new life and possibilities awaiting her. Her senses came to life; they come alive to the beauty in the nature. Her eyes could reach the vastness of the sky; she could smell the delicious breath of rain in the air; and ears became attentive to a song f...

    Read More

More about Symbolism In Miss Brill, By Katherine Mansfield

Open Document