Miranda Rubio Rubio 1 Mrs. Lynsey Barry American & British Literature & Composition 11 September 2013 Mistress Hibbins Mistress Hibbins is a symbol of the hypocrisy in the puritan life-style. The Puritans believe in a simple way of life, yet they call Mistress Hibbins a witch for preferring to be in the forest. Though she is merely a “bitter-tempered (Hawthorne 113)” woman the townspeople are afraid of her. “The crowd gave way before her, and seemed to fear the touch of her garment (Hawthorne 236).” Mistress Hibbins should be considered an excellent example of a good puritan woman. She shuns the luxuries of her brother’s mansion, for the quiet comforts of Gods creation.
She feels as thouh they are playing only for her. She then thinks to herself that this is a play and everyone has a special role in this play, and that she has a role in the play too, which is going to the park every Sunday to sit in the park and watch what goes on around her. The a younger couple comes and sits next to her on the bench. They begin to have a conversation, and of course Miss Brill listened in. The young man began to say how stupid Miss Brill’s fur ermine is and how she should just stay home because no one wants to see her face or wants her around.
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.
In the short story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield, the major conflict develops around Miss Brill’s denial of her isolation because of her age. Utilizing third person limited point of view and symbolism, Mansfield conveys her theme that as a person ages he/she realizes they have no value to society. By placing Miss Brill in Paris, the city of love, Mansfield develops her long suffering but forsaken character as a symbol of all older people. Mansfield begins the narrative by introducing Miss Brill as an introverted and lonely woman. The author solemnly describes Miss Brill’s worn out fur as a “dear little thing” to display Brill’s loving disposition and isolation by using the fur as a symbol of comfort and companionship.
Mansfield spends a great deal of time discussing how Brill spends Sundays alone in the park. The character of Miss Brill is revealed through Miss Brill’s own point of view, along with the dialogue and actions of other characters. Brill’s loneliness becomes apparent when she starts to discuss her fur coat. The author gives the fur a voice and emotions when Brill “rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes.” This use of personification helps further convey Miss Brill as lonely, especially since she’s resorted to talking to inanimate objects as if they were a human being. Mansfield is essentially saying that Miss Brill has become so isolated from the rest of the world, that she’s resulted creating inanimate objects into companions.
Miss Gee Auden tells the story in Miss Gee through a series of phases in her life which are used to create a big impact. As we read the poem ‘Miss Gee’ we begin with a conservative women who is very lonely and seems to have no relationships with anyone, whether that may be family, friends or something more intimate. Further on we create an image with Auden’s words about the temptations Miss Gee has and the struggles she faces in order to control them and if she does actually want control over them. Then at the end we interpret that Miss Gee has died, however the last few stanzas of the poem contrast greatly from the image we have in the beginning. Through a relatively short poem we invent a lifelong image of a person because of how Auden tells us the story.
Character Sketch of Blanche Dubois In Tennessee William’s play A Streetcar Named Desire, we are introduced to Blanche Dubois. Blanche is a misplaced southern belle who as a last resort, comes to live with her sister Stella and husband Stanley for the summer in their modest home in New Orleans. Blanche arrives in a fragile state of mind, but maintains her aristocratic façade nonetheless. To an onlooker she is a walking paradox to her surroundings. Looking polished and proper in “a white suit with a fluffy bodice, necklace and earrings of pearl”, Blanche appears to be a striking contrast to the city that is noticeably decayed, rickety and grey (13).
The dark setting and the little contrast of the painting leads me to think that Wyeth thought of Christina as a sad older woman slowly dying from polio. Just from the lack of distinction from the foreground to background, it could be told that the artist was trying to convey a certain mood. It was the lack of color and the subtle transitions in the tone that makes me think he was trying to convey to us that she had a very dull life and not a lot to do in her daily routine. The kitten also leads the viewer to believe that Christina does not have much time, told by the way the kitten is being grasped as if it is the only valuable piece of life left. Looking deeper into the picture the viewer is only able to see one empty clothes line hanging in the background, as it crosses the cracking and peeling walls, making it seem as if nothing could be a bother to the
“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones” is a quote commonly used for a person that will very quickly judge another but once they are being criticized that same person thinks it is unfair. This quote sums up Miss Brills character in her self titled short story by Katherine Mansfield. The setting is placed on a Sunday afternoon, on Miss Brills normal bench she sits on every Sunday. Miss Brill is an extremely lonely and narcissistic woman and the reader can see these traits in her the farther into the story they read. In the first paragraph of the story Miss Brill pulls out her fur.
Even more painful is the fact that she remembers very little about her previous life: “I [can] remember my name, my age, that I [am] a woman, but death swallowed the rest” (4). She attaches herself to different humans or “hosts”, her first being a lonely poet. Helen and this character have an unspoken bond. While the poet cannot see her ghost, they are learning from each other. This host’s life is similar to that of writer Emily Dickinson, in that they both are isolated poets who express darkness and death in a lot of their work.