Miss Brill

Katherine Mansfield did a really good job at using theme through characterization. She first used Miss Brill’s attitude and appearance. Miss. Brill was a very classy old lady, “Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her fur.” Back in the period that Miss Brill lived, it was very elegant to wear a type of fur around your neck, this usually symbolized wealth. The theme here would be acceptance, this connects to the world because there is always that one piece of clothing everyone wants or wears as a status symbol. The author also uses characterization through action or incident when Miss Brill is in her own world acting as if she is part of a play when two young people pull her back to reality. “ It’s her fu-ur which is so funny, “giggled the girl. “It’s exactly like a fried whiting.” This shocks Miss Brill because she has never experienced insult before, she’s always controlling what she wants to see and hear. When the young couple makes fun of her fur she realizes that she doesn’t live in a fantasy and she has a hard time handling that. The theme here is reality. All of us have that escape, we can think of something and our whole attitude changes like Miss Brill, and maybe that’s what some of us need an escape from the harsh world that is reality.
The author portrayed Miss Brill as a very detailed emotional character from the beginning. The section that most symbolized that emotion was “on her way home she usually bought a slice of honey- cake at the baker’s. It was her Sunday treat; sometimes there was an almond in in her slice, sometimes not. It made a great difference. “If there was an almond it was like carrying home a little tiny present.” This one simple thing impacted her whole entire day. That single almond determined weather or not she was going to have a good day or a bad day. It’s really sad that all Miss Brill had to look forward to what may be the possibility an almond in her honey-cake. This relates to society because there are a lot of