Miss Brill Essay

370 Words2 Pages
Miss Brill is a very lonely lady. Her loneliness has led to her being extremely observant of others and to creating a fantasy life to help meet her need for a closer connection with other people. The short story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield gives great insight into how lonely people can begin to warp their perception of the world around them, causing them to unwittingly deny their loneliness, causing their twisted perception of the world to crumble. The main character, Miss Brill, sits in the park and eavesdrops on other conversations. She wears a fox pelt around her neck and strokes it as she listens in on other people’s conversations. She is a lonely foreigner, yet she doesn’t realize it. The lack of realization causes her to distort the world around her Miss Brill is lonely. This shows when the author discusses how she spends every Sunday alone at the park. The reader can infer that she has no one to spend her time with. Her loneliness is apparent when she gives her fur coat human characteristics. When she takes it out, she talks like it is an old friend: “What has been happening to me? Said the sad little eyes” (6) .Her assigning life-like qualities to inanimate objects shows how isolated she feels. Her descriptions of strangers in the park also give the reader a feeling of just how alone she feels. She fantasizes her has a relationship with them: “They weren’t only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday” (7). Miss Brill is referring to her delusion where she is a part of a play and co workers with all of the other people at the park. This makes it obvious how lonely Miss Brill is. Miss Brill is also observant. Her observation powers are seen when she talks about an elderly husband and wife she sees every Sunday. She described their attire as “he wearing a dreadful Panama hat and
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