“Miss Brill”
Miss Brill is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield and it was published in a collection of stories called The Garden Party in 1922. The story is about a woman who goes to her usual Sunday afternoon walk on Jardins Publiques and what happened there with her that day. In order to provide a study guide about this short story, this paper will analyze the the structure of Plot and the Characters created by the author on Miss Brill.
Considering Plot, Miss Brill is a story about a lonely woman who lived in an apartment in France and taught English to students. Miss Brill’s enjoyment was to wear her “dear little” fur on Sunday afternoon and go to a walk on Jardins Publiques, where she could be away from the loneliness of her “little dark room” and get in touch with people. Besides that, her favorite pastime was to eavesdrop people’s conversations, something on she was “really quite expert” because it made her part of their lives for a moment. However, this eavesdrop became a problem when at that day a young couple sat near Miss Brill and started a conversation about her. When the boy referred to her as “that stupid old thing” and questioned her importance at that place, she realized her meaningless existence and went back home, where she put her fur on its box and heard “something crying”.
The first element of plot is the exposition. In this short story, the exposition brings the care for Miss Brill on preparing her fur for another walk on a Sunday afternoon in the Jardins Publiques - “She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth-powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes”. Furthermore, there is the exposition of Miss Brill pleasure on that afternoon, by being on her “special seat”, listening to the band playing “louder and gayer” “because the Season had begun” and seeing all the people’s movement around her.
The second element of plot should be the rising action. However, in Miss Brill story we can find
Considering Plot, Miss Brill is a story about a lonely woman who lived in an apartment in France and taught English to students. Miss Brill’s enjoyment was to wear her “dear little” fur on Sunday afternoon and go to a walk on Jardins Publiques, where she could be away from the loneliness of her “little dark room” and get in touch with people. Besides that, her favorite pastime was to eavesdrop people’s conversations, something on she was “really quite expert” because it made her part of their lives for a moment. However, this eavesdrop became a problem when at that day a young couple sat near Miss Brill and started a conversation about her. When the boy referred to her as “that stupid old thing” and questioned her importance at that place, she realized her meaningless existence and went back home, where she put her fur on its box and heard “something crying”.
The first element of plot is the exposition. In this short story, the exposition brings the care for Miss Brill on preparing her fur for another walk on a Sunday afternoon in the Jardins Publiques - “She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth-powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes”. Furthermore, there is the exposition of Miss Brill pleasure on that afternoon, by being on her “special seat”, listening to the band playing “louder and gayer” “because the Season had begun” and seeing all the people’s movement around her.
The second element of plot should be the rising action. However, in Miss Brill story we can find
References: MANSFIELD, Katherine. Miss Brill. Elements of Literature. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. p. 339-343. DICKINSON, Leon T. The Elements of Fiction. In: ______ A Guide to Literary Study. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. p. 13-18. Miss Brill Introduction. E-notes Site. Available in: <http://www.enotes.com/miss-brill>. Accessed on: June 01st, 2008.