AP Lit – Short Stories – "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield
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Author
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Katherine Mansfield (1888-1923)
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Year Published
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1922
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Setting
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A Park in Paris, France; Likely around 1922
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Locale
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Jardins Publiques
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Atmosphere
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Pleasant Detachment
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Tone
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Pleasantly Delusional
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Point of View
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Third Person Limited Omniscient
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Narrator
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Miss Brill
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Exposition
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Miss Brill picks out her outfit and goes to the park to listen to the band play. She lives a very routine life, and intently listens in on other people's conversations every Sunday at the Jardins Publiques.
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Plot Overview
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Conflict: Miss Brill is lonely in real life, so she deludes herself into happiness and feeling wanted. Climax: A young couple talks about how they wish she would leave and make fun of her; this shatters Miss Brill's delusion Resolution: Miss Brill goes home, wiser and sadder.
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Theme
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Loneliness and rejection can cause inability to differentiate fantasy from reality.
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The Delusional Epiphany
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Life is a theater and they are all the actors and actresses. No doubt somebody would notice if she were not there. She wants to believe that her presence means something to other people.
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Miss Brill
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Protagonist, Dynamic Character
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A Young Couple
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Antagonist, Stock Character
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The Old Invalid Gentleman
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Lifeless, but a form of social interaction for Miss Brill
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English Pupils
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Nonparticipant, but show that Miss Brill does something productive
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The Fox ("The Little Rogue")
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A dead fox pelt (worn like a mink) shown pet-like affection by Miss Brill
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The People in Jardins Publiques: The Conductor and Bandsmen, A Fine Old Man and a Big Old Woman, An Englishman and his Wife, The Old People and Little Children, Two Young Girls in Red and Two Soldiers in Blue, Two Peasant Women, A Cold and Pale Nun, A Funny Old Man with Long Whiskers, Four Girls Walking Abreast, An Ermine Toque and a Gentleman in Grey "Miss Brill"
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A series of flat or barely-decribed characters whom Miss Brill people-watches
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1st Point
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Miss Brill experiences harsh moments of reality after being trapped in her own little bubble.
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2nd Point
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Miss Brill thinks she's an actress and her whole life is a play.
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3rd Point
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Miss Brill lives through other people's happiness, rather than her own.
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Other
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This story feels a lot like the Beatles' Song Elanor Rigby.
