The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
A discussion of how the protagonist in the novel 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie', who has contradictory views, shows leadership skills which are similar to those of the dictators she admires so much, and her ultimate lack of success in doing so.'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' by Muriel Spark is a novel in which the protagonist is a school teacher who has a very strong influence over her "girls." It can be seen that her leadership skills are similar to those of the dictators she admires so much. However Miss Brodie is also a leader who prefers not to lead from the front. She prefers to 'substitute' her girls into situations she'd like to be in but is too afraid to be. However Miss Brodie is proved to have contradictory views and the ultimate lack of success in her leadership skills is revealed when the girls end up rejecting her and go their own way in life.The title comes from the protagonist of the novel and the belief that she has reached the prime of her life at thirty-nine. The reader can see that Miss Brodie wished to share this with her chosen favourite pupils. She tells her girls that they should recognise their prime as she has and live it to the full. Miss Brodie believes that this is the moment you are bor
Furthermore, not only does Miss Brodie consider both leaders, Mussolini and Hitler, to be her heroes but she also admires General Franc, the right-wing nationalist leader whose Falangist party seized power in Spain at the end of a long and brutal civil war. Another indication of Miss Brodies contradictory views is during a walk she lets her girls know that she is against the Brownies and Guides for their team spirit and discipline. Everything in life has to be fashioned to her own image, whatever the consequences. The reader feels that control is all important to Miss Brodie. The reader feels that Miss Brodies influence as a teacher has failed because none of her set actually reaches their prime as she had. This is a further indication to the reader of how control is very important to her. She considered Mussolini to be "one of the greatest men in the world. This was the very Religion that is hated by Brodie. However the reader sees that the irony is that none of her girls are actually designed to reach their prime. " Later on in the novel it seems that she believed the same of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader of Germany. On another level, though, the use of flashforwards allows the reader to understand at an early age that Sandy betrayed Miss Brodie, converted to Catholicism and later, became a nun. It seems to the reader to be that irony that after all Miss Brodies attempts to manipulate her pupils to be like her, they all reject her and she is betrayed. Muriel Spark adopts an unusual narrative style by using flashbacks and flash forwards in the novel that allows the reader to understand why certain characters have developed in certain ways. Miss Brodie is a character with misguided beliefs with which she tried to indoctrinate her girls. Rose Stanley never had the affair with Teddy Lloyd and eventually made a good marriage.
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