In “Miss Brill” the author Katherine Mansfield creates the metaphor of the world being a stage and the character of Miss Brill being an actress. This illusion can determine her to be a round character because she is afraid of being the person that she isn’t. Miss Brill hides her real emotions by hiding behind a teacher role instead of being true to herself. The character Miss Brill arrives at a theme of isolationism and abandonment; by acting Miss Brill can be recognized as a round character by having a hidden emotion by acting a certain manner.
To be able to understand why Ms. Brill uses loneliness as a protective wall around her actual personality is because she is afraid of rejection and the reality of denial. “They were all on the stage. They weren’t only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. – How strange she’d never thought of it like that before! And yet it explained why she made such a point of starting from home at just the same time each week – so as not to be late for the performance. ” (Manfield Page 185).
This demonstrates the value of Miss Brill having to put on a “performance”, she felt as if she has to act to allow people to accept her as an individual. Miss Brill’s character through-out the story shows a side of loneliness, she does not accept herself for who she is, but for who she isn’t. The emotions she feels are not real and dear to her, but performs them as if they are. The orchestra and the music they play in the story are insightful of the way she feels at the park. “The band sounded louder and gayer. That was because the season had begun.
”(Mansfield, 185) Because of the season Miss Brill was in she feels enlightened by the music she was hearing suggesting the way she felt at that time. The fur at the beginning of the story is an article of clothing near and dear to her heart that she carries around with her at the park but is rather ironic because she describes it as a “little rogue”; rogue meaning that she seeks out things, which she isn’t. Miss Brill spends most of her time in her house serving as her protective barrier from the outside world. She envisions at the park people standing up in unison and dancing and she begins to cry at the thought of it.
Consequently, she could be feeling a sense of rejection at that time because she knows that it would be unlikely for people to just casually stand up and dance with her. The type of people she perceives at the park are young and not ones to agree Misses Brills personality, which dampens the temper of her. Therefore she converts to her remoteness to hide herself… “Suddenly he knew he was having the read to him by an actress! ‘An actress! ’ – ‘An actress – are ye? ’ – ‘Yes I have been an actress for a long time’. ”(Mansfield Page 185) From this, it could mean she has been hiding a type of personality from people.
Evaluating this inference about Miss Brill can be recognized as a type of character that is having difficult time finding herself by having a diverse personality. In order to feel like she is wanted she steps out of her comfort zone by strolling in the park, she does this to include herself with other people by listening in on other conversations many young people have. Miss Brill assumes that all the older people at the park were just strange and quiet, “looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or even – even cupboards. ”(Mansfield, 184).
We can assume that she is relating the people to her, while she imagines the young characters to in a scene of a play. When she begins to observe the young couple she relates them to a story of a hero and a mistress. In actuality the young couples speak about Miss Brill as an unwanted person but in Miss Brill’s mind she still is imagining the un-real performance that she wants to believe. “Why does she come here at all-who wants her? Why doesn’t she keep her silly mug at home? ” the boy says, “ It’s her fu-fur which is so funny,” (Mansfield, 186) snickered the girl.
Miss Brill doesn’t realize the reality of what they say, but she turns the situation into a main act of a play. However, Miss Brill does not show her emotions in her dialog, we can assume that she is lonesome with herself. The way she plays with the fur as if it were part of her shows the reader that she has no other spouse to show her true emotions for, except for the piece of garment. Miss Brill conceives many of her thoughts as a story so she can someway relate to her, “In reality, Miss Brill is a part of nothing. She sits alone on a bench with her ratty old fur and watches the world pass before her.
” “Rather than see herself as one of them, she creates a fantasy world to escape facing the truth. Even in this seemingly perfect production, within Miss Brills mind, Mansfield shows us that there is the possibility of evil. ” (Miss Brill, Character Analysis). When the young couple is sitting at the bench snickering at little Miss Brill, she has no actuality of what they said, but when she comes to comprehend she walks home sadly, when she gets home she sits in her room, silently and pulls out the fur, she inspects it but it seems to of lost its color and grown faint.
Readers can infer that it symbolizes the lonesomeness of Miss Brill and how she is slowly degrading. The fur then is to be put away, when she hears a cry of the fur. The reality behind the story hurts Miss Brill to a point where she has to a find a way to cope with her harms with the people around her; she does this by imagining things that are unreal. “The theme of estrangement has run its course. Miss Brill has made an ever so passionate attempt to express love, to be a part of the whole of society that means so much to her.
Her imagination, though sensitive, has failed from lack of experience. She is left, as she began, in her pathetic solitude. ”(Hull, Web. ). In conclusion to this story, the Author Katherine Mansfield accomplishes the theme of loneliness, the scared thought many people have of rejection, and the conception of many people may have and can relate to. The coping mechanism people use to escape the reality of many situations can hurt them if they don’t come to sense with it.
The theme of isolation, and the round character the author Katherine Mansfield shows is brought upon by Miss Brill; The thought of getting rejected by society in the story “Miss Brill”. Works Cited Mansfield, Katherine ”Miss Brill” An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Roberts, Edgar, Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press. 1922. “Miss Brill, A Character Analysis. ” 123HelpMe. com. 04 Feb 2013 . Hull, Robert L. “Alienation in ‘Miss Brill’. ” EXPLORING Short Stories. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 4 Feb. 2013
