Miss Brill

Katharine Mansfield, the author of "Miss Brill," uses the protaginist of the story, Miss Brill, to present the story. Miss Brill is a very judgemental character,she goes to a park in France every Sunday and watches the people and makes several judgements about them. Miss Brill sits on a bench and listens to a band and judges how the band plays. When on the bench, Miss Brill will get frustrated if the person next to her doesn't start a conversation with her. With the descriptions that Mansfield makes, you can judge that Miss Brill is a hermit, who doesn't have much of a social life and depends on other people to live her life for her. As the story progresses Miss Brill begins to think that life is a stage and all the people are actors and all of their behaviors are part of the act, and she still sits on the bench observing the people and making assumptions about themand enjoys their behavior. With these attributes Mansfield displays a picture to the reader that Miss Brill has low self esteem because all she does is judge other people and doesn't ever judge herself, also the reader can see that Miss Brill has no social life, is a loner, and is kind of crazy with her thought process that life is a stage. Also, Mansfield creates irony through Miss Brill in that Miss Brill is a teacher and should be an example to children, but with the way she acts you'd think that she is a child. Mansfield creates symbolism through the fox fur that Miss Brill wears, because the fox fur, like Miss Brill, goes out every Sunday, and stays caged in all week, is old and unwanted. Katherine Mansfield did a wonderful job depicting the character of Miss Brill, as a reader you could easily tell that Miss Brill was a judgemental loner, who had no social life, and depended on others to live her life for her, you could tell this thorugh Mansfield's literary elements.