In Miss Brill, Katherine Mansfield describes an aging teacher who visits the public park every Sunday. She enjoys listening to others conversations and feels as though she has a relationship with even the members of the band. Her life is very predictable until she realizes one Sunday that she is not the person she once thought she was. Mansfield uses Miss Brill to suggest that it is part of our human nature to substitute those things that may be lacking from our lives in order to survive it.
             Miss Brill is a woman who has a false sense of consciousness. She lives a life that is not relevant to reality. She portrays herself to be amongst the higher class of society and that she is still somewhat youthful. Even the sky around her seems to be "powdered with gold" and the light is like "white wine." As she dresses for her afternoon, she chooses to wear what appears to be the most exquisite apparel she can find. She absolutely adores this "fur" and even has conversations with it. The fact that the fur is not in the greatest shape is shown as deviant behavior to her and she calls it "little rouge." After she "repairs" the minor blemishes, she feels a sense of perfection with it and herself. Once she arrives in the park, listening to the band play like "with only the family to listen," she feels right at home in her "special seat."
             She tries to justify her loneliness by finding the faults of the relationships that encompass her. In the story, Miss Brill takes note of a "fine old man" who is sitting with a "big old woman," a patient Englishman and his unpleasing wife, and the woman who was wearing the ermine toque that seemed to bounce back into socialization even after being ignored. She even notices that the two peasant women, little boys and girls, and the mother and child, all of whom are not alone like herself. Her obse
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