Miss Brill
The short story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield is about and elderly English teacher in France who spends her Sundays in the park. She is very lonely and has a specific bench that she sits on every week where she listens to the band and watches people pass by. Due to her lack of relationships, she has created a fantasy life for herself in which she believes that she is a much more glamorous woman than what she really is. Mansfield uses this story to describe how many elderly people deal with the aging process by denying their appearances and circumstances. Miss Brill owns a fur, which she treats as if it were a pet, apparently to compensate for her loneliness and her lack of connection with others. She calls the fur a "rogue" with "sad eyes" as if the fur had emotions or a personality. She overlooks what she thinks are insignificant blemishes like its nose. She says she will add "a little dab of sealing wax when the time came." The fur is a representation of how she sees her self. She overlooks the
Once Miss Brill arrives at her home, which is then described using the same terms that Miss Brill uses herself in describing all of the other old people in the park. When one's family gets older and moves away to follow their own lives the elderly are often left out with no one. A lot of people lose many of the relationships that they have had over the years. " Then the boy calls her an ugly old thing that nobody wants. The author further describes the woman and her toque saying that the woman's hair, face, and eyes are all the same color as the "shabby" ermine. Nobody wants to feel unwanted or useless. Mansfield uses a second couple to bring Miss Brill and the reader a true definition of reality. The girl says "It is her fu-fur which is so funny" and that "It's exactly like a fried whiting. They also have incidents with other characters in the story that provide proof of them being viewed by others as being old and quite possibly eccentric. Often times they make up things that make them feel important and valuable. flaw in herself that have come from age. They both have fur accessories that they love and they both have no concept of their own haggard appearance. She overhears the couple making fun of her. As the man walks away she just moves on acting as if she has found someone else to talk to. This leads the reader to believe that both the woman's hair and the fur had changed with time.
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