Review: Miss Brill

Miss Brill

by

Katherine Mansfield

The short story entitled Miss Brill. It was written by Katherine Mansfield. It was first published on November 26, 1920. The short story tells about an aged, lonely woman named Miss Brill.  Miss Brill is imaginative and optimistic about the way she sees the world. She is happy with the imaginary world she has created for herself. She works as an English teacher in Paris to make a living for herself. The character “Miss Brill” blurs the line between fantasy and reality on an ordinary Sunday outing to the public gardens.  Miss Brill’s life is one of untidy modishness and pretense. This impression begins in the opening paragraph as she lovingly takes an old-fashioned fox fur out of its box for her usual Sunday outing to the gardens. She considers life as all theater and playacting, and she herself as a participant one of life’s actresses, no longer an ordinary observer and spectator. She images that she is a great actress in beautiful dress. However, in this story she does not put herself as the lead. She dresses herself in fur and thinks as is it is a real fox draped around the neck. The fox’s eyes are glassy when Miss Brill takes it from its box, freeing it from storage. She goes to a concert and sits in her "special seat," where she feels she can participate in the lives of people around her. The concert is a concert that she attends once a week. She notes that the band’s performance sounded louder and gayer. Besides enjoying the concert, she is also observing some couples in the surrounding. Imaginably she wishes to be loved but for her own reasons would rather watch rather than participate. It shows that she has low self- esteem. In the end on the story, it tells that she is a private woman who loves simple pleasures of life, like as, almond in pastries and seems pleased in her loneliness.

Here, I can conclude that the short story depict a picture about a woman who struggles to live her life. She enjoys the out-of-the-ordinary life she has created for herself.  Miss Brill shows her strength by working and living alone. Although it is hard, she can overcome it. Miss Brill tells us, women that we only need to struggle on everything that we do and do not hear bad comments, unless those comment give positive impact. Women are born with special power to defeat obstacles in life. Women are warm, gentle and strong at the same time.

Anis Nur Fatimah