In the story "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield, the author uses various ways to fully characterize Miss Brill, and in doing so reveals the many sides and complexity of her character. It is difficult to understand Miss Brill because she does not understand herself. She tries to make her life more interesting by listening in on other people's conversations. Miss Brill's fur symbolizes what her life is and has become. It is through her fur that she begins to understand what her life really is like, even though she wants to deny it. 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.
             In the beginning of this story, Miss Brill seems to be a part of the upper class and enjoys her Sunday afternoons in the Jardins Publiques. However Miss Brill enjoys her time in the gardens for reasons that go beyond the casual conversation and social aspects of the Sunday gatherings. Miss Brill looks forward to the conversations of other people in the garden because she feels as though she is sitting in on their lives for just a moment. She lives through the lives of other people. She feels as if her own life is disappointing so she tries to be a part of someone else's life for a moment. 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. Miss Brill's imagination shows that she is isolated from the real world and wants to make her life seem like it has more value. As Miss Brill observes the people in the gardens she makes the assumption that some of them were odd, silent, nearly all old, and looked like they were from little dark rooms or even cupboards. When she makes this observation she is really describing herself. She does not want to realize that she is odd to other people, old, and silent so at the end of...