Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

“Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield is a third-person narrative that gives a brief look into the mind of an elderly woman named Miss Brill. The story takes place at a park, in France, where Miss Brill routinely goes to listen to a band play and observe the lives of others. On this particular day, Miss Brill’s thoughts are farfetched and bursting with fascination. However, a run in with a young, insulting couple forces her back into reality. Miss Brill evokes endless sympathy as the audience joins her along her weekly walk.
    People who disagree may claim that Miss Brill was a character who elicited ridicule. Some people may argue that this is made clear towards the end of the story when a young couple laugh at Miss Brill’s worned out fur,

and call her a ‘stupid old thing’. Miss Brill’s humiliation is complete, and she retires to her own ‘room like a cupboard’ and stores away her old fur stole, with only the sound of crying left in the ‘little dark room’.. This may be a strong argument because this action gets the reader wondering why she sets herself up by going to the park EVERY Sunday, fully aware of the fact that no one wants her. However, this argument is also weak because Miss Brill didn’t necessarily go to the park to seek anyone’s attention, or to get anyone to feel bad for her, it was just a place where she felt content within life and herself.  
It is clear that we can conclude that Katherine Mansfield brilliantly wrote Miss Brill’s
character out to be one in which can’t help but to grab your full attention and suck you in. Being an old, lonely woman who spends all of her spare time eavesdropping and people watching, readers all around, including me, want to put themselves in Miss Brill’s shoes to fully grasp her feelings and dig more deeper into why she possesses this habit.