Katherine Mansfield "Miss Brill"

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Katherine Mansfield communicates the character of Miss Brill in an implicit way, rarely giving us any explicit characteristics. To describe, for example, Miss Brill's loneliness the author tells us her plans for a Sunday afternoon. Instead of directly telling us that she likes to eavesdrop, she describes her eavesdropping. Katherine Mansfield describes Miss Brill as a judgemental hypocrite, by getting into the characters head to tell us not only her feeling and emotions, but also her thoughts about the world surrounding her. To communicate that Miss Brill is lonely, Katherine Mansfield described her talking to her old fur a if it was a person, "Miss Brill put up her hand and touched her fur. Dear little thing! It was nice to feel it again. She had taken it out of its box that afternoon ... and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes." By writing these words Katherine Mansfiled wants to illustrate Miss Brill as a person who lives alone and has no one to talk to. The fact that her fur had been all dusty implies that it had been put away for a long while, which makes the reader infer the characters age. The old little woman uses her imagination to make objects in her enviroment communicate with her. While describing the whole scene, K. M. creates a clear picture of Miss Brill's lonely life. Another sign of Miss Brill’s need for companionship is evident in her perception of the music which the band is playing at the Jardins Publiques: “It was like some one playing with only the family to listen.” Despite of her loneliness, she is considering herself a part of this family that the band is entertaining with its music. But in reality she is more of an observer, a voyeur, and not an active participant in life. Katherine Mansfield describes Miss Brill as an old lady, sitting in the park, listening to other people's conversations. To communicate

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