‘Miss Brill’ is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923) - Pseudonym of Kathleen Murry, where by her original name is Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp. She was born in Wellington, New Zealand, into a middle-class colonial family. Her father, Harold Beauchamp, was a banker and her mother, Annie Burnell Dyer, was of genteel origins. She lived for six years in the rural village of Karori. Later on, Mansfield said "I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was, too. But, better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all." At the age of nine, she had her first text published. Later on, she was well-known as the New Zealand's most famous writer and was closely associated with D.H. Lawrence and something of a rival of Virginia Woolf. Mansfield's creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy and alienation. Therefore, what comes to my mind that all these have reflected in her work with the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships of her middle-class characters especially in this short story called ‘Miss Brill’.
Why on earth that Katherine Mansfield would like to entitle the story as ‘Miss Brill’? Not as ‘Madam Brill’ or something else? As for us, we got our own thinking on that and our answer is so easy. In our opinion, Mansfield here possibly wanted to tell the readers by using the word ‘Miss’ that the main character in her short story had never been married. This factor likely contributed to the short story ‘Miss Brill’, which is a story of an elderly woman, who is lonely and becomes entangled with observing others lives to amuse herself. The story is so completely the language Miss Brill uses to describe her world, which we would like to consider that it is left difficult to discuss. In fact, the inclination is to just quote the brilliantly written sentences. The protagonist, on the other hand, who is Miss Brill herself, is not brilliant at all. Miss Brill is the audience to a ‘play’ pretending like she is starring in it, when really she is barely one of the most insignificant roles. “No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn’t been there”. She views the entire park as a stage and herself an actress. This method of looking at things seems to give Miss Brill a sense of being needed or wanted. She actually looks down on the other people at the park as if they were less than what she is. While looking at the different people in the park, Miss Brill overhears a conversation where a couple is talking about her and how funny she and the fur look. The man in the couple says: “Why does she come here at all, who wants her? Why doesn't she keep her silly mug at home?" "It's her fu-fur which is so funny". At this point in the story, Miss Brill is finally forced to realize who she is and what others think of her. When the girl in the park refers to the fur as a fried whiting it hurts Miss Brill so much because it is almost as if she is referring to her as that. She learns who she is and finally begins to understand how truly isolated she is.
Our reading of this short story gives us a strong feeling that the writer is trying to present the importance of not forgetting in taking care of the elderly. Frankly speaking, we feel that our nation has neglects the elderly. The best example can be seen when the older generation is often left to live in nursing homes or remain in their own homes with no loved ones around. This has the potential to make a person feel that he/she would like to shut out all of reality. For us, this short story is a very good one to further explain in details about that. This is because, this short story is also about an older woman who doesn't have any people around her that love her. And because of this isolation, we can see clearly how she makes things up in her mind to compensate. A person who doesn't have any significant others in his/her life, may create an alternate reality to make up for what they don't have. If Miss Brill realizes that what she believes isn't reality, she can become broken and emotionally devastated. Through the theme of the story that is connected with one of the literary devices such symbolism, Mansfield is able to easily and clearly show how this happens to Miss Brill.
First of all, it is really important to highlight here that the theme of the story is about loneliness. Loneliness is a painful feeling that no one in this world can bear. Some try to overcome that feeling, and others try to find ways to escape from it. There are, for instance, many ways to escape from loneliness, such as escaping it by running away, trying to fit in a big crowd or by the popular method of suicide. In this short story, the writer utilized the theme by explaining about the loneliness that Miss Brill had to go through and how Miss Brill tries to escape from her loneliness by integrating herself into other people’s lives. Her fantasy of being part of a big crowd, her attention towards the physical appearance of others and the symbolic meaning of the fur clearly indicates her attempt to escape loneliness through integrating herself into other people’s lives. Miss Brill fantasizing of being part of a big crowd is definitely the key element to help her integrate into other’s lives.
“Oh, how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all! It was like a play”. During the entire time at the garden, she describes everyone’s physical appearance. It keeps her mind busy thinking about their physical appearance, and consequently, loneliness will not flow in her mind. She is integrating into other’s lives by looking at their physical appearance. She is not wanted at the Garden, and no one cares for her existence. “Even she had a part and came every Sunday. This is shown through her fantasy of fitting in a crowd, her concentration to how others looked and the symbolism of the fur. In other words, living other peoples’ lives can make her happier, forgetting about loneliness. She asks that question to herself because she knows what is going on inside her. When it came out of the box, Miss Brill “rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes,” the fur comes to life when it comes out of the box, just like Miss Brill comes to life when she goes to the Garden. “She even knows what goes on every Sunday at the Garden, like who’s here at the same place last time and who wasn’t, and she can tell a story about nearly all of them. And when she goes home, she thinks she hears the fur crying inside the box. ” She enjoyed it so much from watching all this. Looking at how others looked is a way for her to escape loneliness.
A symbol is simply something that means more than what it is. It has a different, abstract meaning apart from its literal significance. It can be an object, a person, a situation, an action, or any other thing presented in a story. A symbol of how Miss Brill feels about herself. The narrator describes how Miss Brill hasn't taken the fur out of the box in a long time and she had "shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes ". It is actually just like saying that she has been put in a box and the lid has been closed, just like the box that the fur has been placed in. for example, Miss Brill wants her life to be more exciting. So, she imagines that the scene in the garden is really a huge play and that she is an actress. The fur only comes out of its box on Sundays and Miss Brill spends a lot of time making sure that it looks perfect. Therefore, the connection is now drawn between the two as both being old and having been stored away for a long time. She views the fur as a beautiful possession, when actually it has become worn down and is coming apart. Miss Brill is an old lady who doesn't have anyone around her that loves her or thinks anything of her. Miss Brill even goes on to imagine the fur asking: "What has been happening to me?” This action symbolizes how she wonders what has happened to herself. She has become old and broken. The couple that she hears in the park exemplifies this by making fun of her fur which in turn means that they have been mocking her. The fur that she owns is, in a sense, is actually representing her. To avoid this realization, she must keep on believing that the fur is beautiful. But, later on, after her encounter with the couple, she begins to grasp reality and, in despair, hurries home not even stopping at the bakery where she always stops. She gets home and sits there for a while with the fur and as she begins to put it away, she hears a crying. When she puts the fur away it is noted that she doesn't look at it. This definitely contrasts to how she acted towards it at the beginning. She now realizes that she is neither beautiful nor young and by putting the fur away she puts these beliefs behind. The crying that Miss Brill hears comes from her own heart because she has just been crushed by the realization that she has been compelled to make at the park. By using a limited omniscient narrator to tell the story, the reader gets a clear sense of how a person can perceive life differently to help them cope with their age and loneliness.
Another way that the author supports the theme is her description of the woman in the ermine toque. This character is used as a symbol of Miss Brill. The narrator shares the details of the woman by saying: "she was wearing the ermine toque she'd bought when her hair was yellow". Obviously, this is to create a tie between her and Miss Brill as both being old. It can also be deduced that the two are similar by comparing the fact that the woman is wearing an ermine toque which is a fur, similar to Miss Brill wearing her fur. Both these connections lay the groundwork for what the author intends to be the main theme of the woman in the ermine toque. Miss Brill watches an incident happen to the woman where she flirts with a tall distinguished man, who stands there while she talks and then abruptly leaves, showing his disregard for her by blowing a puff of smoke in her face. This is also like telling Miss Brill of how she was rejected by society. The couple that Miss Brill overhears making fun of her is a perfect example of this. All of these points are carefully created to subtly teach the reader about Miss Brill and the effects of rejection. People are sometimes forced to create a distorted view of reality to avoid the pain of rejection. Miss Brill, however, was eventually not able to sustain this image.
To conclude, the value of having moralities is also portrayed throughout this story. The story of Miss Brill shows what can happen if someone is not happy with one's personal reality and instead creates one's own world to counterbalance. In the case of Miss Brill, she has no one to love of to care for her. Therefore, she can just imagines that she is an actress, not allowing herself to see that she is old and alone. This causes her to be devastated when she does realize that she is not a young and beautiful actress. The author might be trying to make a point using Miss Brill as an example. Throughout the story, readers are able to understand the loneliness that Miss Brill feels which makes it easier to understand why she lives her life in denial. Maybe, we as a society may need to revaluate our priorities and start taking better care of our elderly.
Reviewed By ; Nor Rulmaisura Mohamad (National University of Malaysia - UKM)
Why on earth that Katherine Mansfield would like to entitle the story as ‘Miss Brill’? Not as ‘Madam Brill’ or something else? As for us, we got our own thinking on that and our answer is so easy. In our opinion, Mansfield here possibly wanted to tell the readers by using the word ‘Miss’ that the main character in her short story had never been married. This factor likely contributed to the short story ‘Miss Brill’, which is a story of an elderly woman, who is lonely and becomes entangled with observing others lives to amuse herself. The story is so completely the language Miss Brill uses to describe her world, which we would like to consider that it is left difficult to discuss. In fact, the inclination is to just quote the brilliantly written sentences. The protagonist, on the other hand, who is Miss Brill herself, is not brilliant at all. Miss Brill is the audience to a ‘play’ pretending like she is starring in it, when really she is barely one of the most insignificant roles. “No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn’t been there”. She views the entire park as a stage and herself an actress. This method of looking at things seems to give Miss Brill a sense of being needed or wanted. She actually looks down on the other people at the park as if they were less than what she is. While looking at the different people in the park, Miss Brill overhears a conversation where a couple is talking about her and how funny she and the fur look. The man in the couple says: “Why does she come here at all, who wants her? Why doesn't she keep her silly mug at home?" "It's her fu-fur which is so funny". At this point in the story, Miss Brill is finally forced to realize who she is and what others think of her. When the girl in the park refers to the fur as a fried whiting it hurts Miss Brill so much because it is almost as if she is referring to her as that. She learns who she is and finally begins to understand how truly isolated she is.
Our reading of this short story gives us a strong feeling that the writer is trying to present the importance of not forgetting in taking care of the elderly. Frankly speaking, we feel that our nation has neglects the elderly. The best example can be seen when the older generation is often left to live in nursing homes or remain in their own homes with no loved ones around. This has the potential to make a person feel that he/she would like to shut out all of reality. For us, this short story is a very good one to further explain in details about that. This is because, this short story is also about an older woman who doesn't have any people around her that love her. And because of this isolation, we can see clearly how she makes things up in her mind to compensate. A person who doesn't have any significant others in his/her life, may create an alternate reality to make up for what they don't have. If Miss Brill realizes that what she believes isn't reality, she can become broken and emotionally devastated. Through the theme of the story that is connected with one of the literary devices such symbolism, Mansfield is able to easily and clearly show how this happens to Miss Brill.
First of all, it is really important to highlight here that the theme of the story is about loneliness. Loneliness is a painful feeling that no one in this world can bear. Some try to overcome that feeling, and others try to find ways to escape from it. There are, for instance, many ways to escape from loneliness, such as escaping it by running away, trying to fit in a big crowd or by the popular method of suicide. In this short story, the writer utilized the theme by explaining about the loneliness that Miss Brill had to go through and how Miss Brill tries to escape from her loneliness by integrating herself into other people’s lives. Her fantasy of being part of a big crowd, her attention towards the physical appearance of others and the symbolic meaning of the fur clearly indicates her attempt to escape loneliness through integrating herself into other people’s lives. Miss Brill fantasizing of being part of a big crowd is definitely the key element to help her integrate into other’s lives.
“Oh, how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all! It was like a play”. During the entire time at the garden, she describes everyone’s physical appearance. It keeps her mind busy thinking about their physical appearance, and consequently, loneliness will not flow in her mind. She is integrating into other’s lives by looking at their physical appearance. She is not wanted at the Garden, and no one cares for her existence. “Even she had a part and came every Sunday. This is shown through her fantasy of fitting in a crowd, her concentration to how others looked and the symbolism of the fur. In other words, living other peoples’ lives can make her happier, forgetting about loneliness. She asks that question to herself because she knows what is going on inside her. When it came out of the box, Miss Brill “rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes,” the fur comes to life when it comes out of the box, just like Miss Brill comes to life when she goes to the Garden. “She even knows what goes on every Sunday at the Garden, like who’s here at the same place last time and who wasn’t, and she can tell a story about nearly all of them. And when she goes home, she thinks she hears the fur crying inside the box. ” She enjoyed it so much from watching all this. Looking at how others looked is a way for her to escape loneliness.
A symbol is simply something that means more than what it is. It has a different, abstract meaning apart from its literal significance. It can be an object, a person, a situation, an action, or any other thing presented in a story. A symbol of how Miss Brill feels about herself. The narrator describes how Miss Brill hasn't taken the fur out of the box in a long time and she had "shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes ". It is actually just like saying that she has been put in a box and the lid has been closed, just like the box that the fur has been placed in. for example, Miss Brill wants her life to be more exciting. So, she imagines that the scene in the garden is really a huge play and that she is an actress. The fur only comes out of its box on Sundays and Miss Brill spends a lot of time making sure that it looks perfect. Therefore, the connection is now drawn between the two as both being old and having been stored away for a long time. She views the fur as a beautiful possession, when actually it has become worn down and is coming apart. Miss Brill is an old lady who doesn't have anyone around her that loves her or thinks anything of her. Miss Brill even goes on to imagine the fur asking: "What has been happening to me?” This action symbolizes how she wonders what has happened to herself. She has become old and broken. The couple that she hears in the park exemplifies this by making fun of her fur which in turn means that they have been mocking her. The fur that she owns is, in a sense, is actually representing her. To avoid this realization, she must keep on believing that the fur is beautiful. But, later on, after her encounter with the couple, she begins to grasp reality and, in despair, hurries home not even stopping at the bakery where she always stops. She gets home and sits there for a while with the fur and as she begins to put it away, she hears a crying. When she puts the fur away it is noted that she doesn't look at it. This definitely contrasts to how she acted towards it at the beginning. She now realizes that she is neither beautiful nor young and by putting the fur away she puts these beliefs behind. The crying that Miss Brill hears comes from her own heart because she has just been crushed by the realization that she has been compelled to make at the park. By using a limited omniscient narrator to tell the story, the reader gets a clear sense of how a person can perceive life differently to help them cope with their age and loneliness.
Another way that the author supports the theme is her description of the woman in the ermine toque. This character is used as a symbol of Miss Brill. The narrator shares the details of the woman by saying: "she was wearing the ermine toque she'd bought when her hair was yellow". Obviously, this is to create a tie between her and Miss Brill as both being old. It can also be deduced that the two are similar by comparing the fact that the woman is wearing an ermine toque which is a fur, similar to Miss Brill wearing her fur. Both these connections lay the groundwork for what the author intends to be the main theme of the woman in the ermine toque. Miss Brill watches an incident happen to the woman where she flirts with a tall distinguished man, who stands there while she talks and then abruptly leaves, showing his disregard for her by blowing a puff of smoke in her face. This is also like telling Miss Brill of how she was rejected by society. The couple that Miss Brill overhears making fun of her is a perfect example of this. All of these points are carefully created to subtly teach the reader about Miss Brill and the effects of rejection. People are sometimes forced to create a distorted view of reality to avoid the pain of rejection. Miss Brill, however, was eventually not able to sustain this image.
To conclude, the value of having moralities is also portrayed throughout this story. The story of Miss Brill shows what can happen if someone is not happy with one's personal reality and instead creates one's own world to counterbalance. In the case of Miss Brill, she has no one to love of to care for her. Therefore, she can just imagines that she is an actress, not allowing herself to see that she is old and alone. This causes her to be devastated when she does realize that she is not a young and beautiful actress. The author might be trying to make a point using Miss Brill as an example. Throughout the story, readers are able to understand the loneliness that Miss Brill feels which makes it easier to understand why she lives her life in denial. Maybe, we as a society may need to revaluate our priorities and start taking better care of our elderly.
Reviewed By ; Nor Rulmaisura Mohamad (National University of Malaysia - UKM)
1 comment:
the difference between miss and madam is way more than just about marriage and stuff. look at it this way. the property of madam includes the notion of 'belonged', which in this case, to someone else. while the term miss captures the essence of solitary, or in a better word, the world of 'oneself'. means, that it is her 'oneself' in the story without the influence of other being, focusing on her individuality, excluding other aspect which would deter her character as a person. or perhaps, as a woman itself. it could be viewed from a slight window of feminism - in term of identity and world view.
Post a Comment