Character Analsys

Zachary Morris

Professor Calendar

English 113

20 January 2008

Character Analysis

Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" is one of her final short stories published. Mansfield was an early 20th Century short story writer, with this story coming from her final compilation of short stories, The Garden Party and Other Stories, published a year before her untimely death in 1923 at the age of thirty-five. "Miss Brill" looks at a specific day of the isolated, lonely, and transparent title character's life. Around this time period an older, unwed woman did not have the ability to go out with friends or join social clubs similar to today's women. As "Miss Brill" depicts, they often lived by themselves in an individual room and were not afforded the then luxury of any kind of real meaningful relationship, especially with a member of the opposite sex. This writing could easily be the product of Mansfield reaching middle-age having not formed a family. Miss Brill may be the person Mansfield fears becoming in the future as an unwed, childless woman. Mansfield's story makes clear distinctions of the way an individual views the world, views themselves in that perceived world, and the way that individual is seen by other people. Miss Brill is a static character either unable or unwilling to live in reality.

"Miss Brill" takes place in Jaradis Publiques, France, with Miss Brill attending a live band concert. Miss Brill is at the show by herself, yet still has some sort of imagined conversation with the fur piece she wears around her neck. She is familiar with the