Katherine Mansfields Miss Brill - Essay Example

Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill Katherine Mansfield Murry hailed from New Zealand but wrote most of her work in England and France. Some of her stories reflect a nostalgia for her roots, but many consider her very English in her writings. She married an Englishman, John Middleton Murry, who was the editor of a journal and whose aim was to champion experimental, modernistic writing and art. Perhaps her husband influenced Mansfield’s writing to some extent in the first years of their married life. Mansfield at first published comic short stories in papers and journals. Her letters to her husband, journals and other correspondence is as much a part of her literary legacy as her books. Katherine Mansfield’s short story Miss Brill was published in 1922 as part of the book The Garden Party and Other Stories. The year was a turning point of modernistic writing and Mansfield’s book shared this period with writings like Joyce’s Ulysses, T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Rilke’s Duino Elegies. In 1920 suffering from tuberculosis, Mansfield was recuperating on the French Riviera, when she wrote Miss Brill. In a spurt of productive creativity, Mansfield wrote Miss Brill, The Stranger and The Daughters of the Late Colonel that are ranked amongst her best works. In a short life of just thirty four years Katherine Mansfield created enduring stories that critics throughout the world have returned to time and again. In Miss Brill Mansfield brings to life the life of a lonely spinster and the fantasy world that she indulges herself in every Sunday till the day she is rudely shaken out of her romantic imaginings by the harsh words of a young couple. The story enters the life of an ordinary lonely spinster and delves into the consciousness of women like her who existed all over the world at the time. Miss Brill is an elderly lady whose life is unchanging and extremely dull. She tries to bring some semblance of excitement into it by indulging in a fantasy about her life and enjoys her Sunday afternoons in the park listening to people’s conversations “as though she didnt listen.” (Mansfield, 2) These Sunday afternoons seem to be the highlight of her ordinary week. Her excitement right from the beginning of the story is palpable as she describes the weather as fine, but with “just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip,” (Mansfield, 1) as if the excitement of what she is about to experience is like the expectation of the pleasant feeling of coolness that the iced water will bring to her. Her imagination runs riot as she caresses her fur and calls it a “little rogue”. She fancies that it is speaking to her and accusing her of not having given it enough time and consideration, as if it were a living thing snapping its eyes at her and biting its tail near her ear. She sits on her usual bench and waits expectantly to listen in on the conversations of those seated near her. She is however disappointed as they sit in silence. She mentally regurgitates conversations that she has listened in on during her previous visits. As she watches the others sitting on the benches and chairs in the park she mentally puts them in the category of “odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though theyd just come from dark little rooms or even - even cupboards!” (Mansfield, 2) Miss Brill’s description of the people in the park is colored by the fantasies she weaves about their characters as the “grave” peasant women or the “cold, pale nun” and the “ermine toque”. She even imagines the conversations they are having and fancies that the band plays as if sensing the moods she imagines in the people she sees around her. Miss Brill imagines herself to be part of a play and the others around her to be the other characters. She conceives of the sky as a painted backdrop to the stage on which the play is being performed. She believes that all the people at the park are both the audience and the actors and she too is a part of the play which to her mind explains why she was so particular about the time she started from home every Sunday afternoon so as not to be late to play her part. She also believes that that was the reason she was so shy while describing to her pupils how she spent her Sunday afternoons. Miss Brill also goes on to picture the reaction of the old invalided gentleman to whom she reads the newspaper when he realizes that she is an actress, and her own quiet admission “Yes, I have been an actress for a long time.” (Mansfield, 4) Just as Miss Brill’s spirits soar to lofty heights of glorious imagination, and her eyes fill with tears of joy at being a part of that wonderful group of people; she becomes aware of a young couple in love sitting beside her. She mentally gives them the role of hero and heroine and prepares herself to listen to their conversation. She is however rudely shaken out of her daydream as the lovers’ conversation, harshly reminds her of what she really is - an old woman in an old shabby fur who nobody cares about. Miss Brill, who usually treats herself to a slice of cake on her way home, is too distraught to stop at the baker’s shop. She returns to “her room like a cupboard” and her despair overwhelms her as she returns the fur to its box and imagines that she hears her “little rogue” crying. Through the character of Miss Brill, Mansfield shows a rare sensitivity towards those lonely people who lead humdrum lives with nobody to share their joys and sorrows. People like Miss Brill try their best to delude themselves about the truth, afraid that facing it could shatter the façade that helps them face every new day. The fur in the story in many ways symbolizes Miss Brill. The age and lost beauty and vigor of the fur is similar to Miss Brill’s, the box from which it is taken out is akin to Miss Brill’s outing in the park and as the fur is returned to its box so Miss Brill returns to her “dark room like a cupboard.” Mansfield’s delicate handling of the story of the way people react to the utter desolation that is the result of loneliness is what makes her relevant even today. Her strength lies in her ability to probe the human mind laying bare the cravings, desires and yearnings of the soul. Works Cited Mansfield, Katherine. “Miss Brill” Web 16 April 2015 Read More