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Character analysis of miss brill
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Character analysis of miss brill
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Jaelynn Charles
Professor Haines
Comp I
20 November 2017
The Literary Analysis of Miss Brill
The short story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield gives a good look into how secluded people can begin to distort the way they perceive what happens around them, unwittingly deny their loneliness, making their warped perception of the what they believe to be true to be destroyed. Mansfield uses the characterization of the protagonist along with their actions to make the story enjoyable for the audience. The main character, Miss Brill, goes to the park and snoops in on the conversations around her. She is clothed in a fur around her neck and she pets it it as she listens in on the other park goers discussions, while also having one of her own with
Isolation often creates dismay resulting in an individual facing internal conflicts with themselves. Ann experiences and endures unbearable loneliness to the point where she needs to do almost anything to
Isolation can be a somber subject. Whether it be self-inflicted or from the hands of others, isolation can be the make or break for anyone. In simpler terms, isolation could range anywhere from not fitting into being a complete outcast due to personal, physical, or environmental factors. It is not only introverted personalities or depression that can bring upon isolation. Extroverts and active individuals can develop it, but they tend to hide it around crowds of other people. In “Richard Cory,” “Miniver Cheevy,” The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “Not Waving but Drowning,” E.A. Robinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stevie Smith illustrate the diverse themes of isolation.
All in all, Miss Brill is a character in her own perception of watching other people’s lives, but a lonely woman in reality. Through the actions of Miss Brill using her fur scarf as an inanimate object to become her friend, to watching the woman rejecting the flowers from the little boy, Miss Brill has created her own fantasy world of actors and actresses getting on and off the stage, making her not wanting to discover the woman who she is right now. As Miss Brill hears the teasing of the young couple and wakes up from her fantasy world and imagination, she has finally understood how the world is not perceived as she wanted it to be.
Stephen Marche Lets us know that loneliness is “not a state of being alone”, which he describes as external conditions rather than a psychological state. He states that “Solitude can be lovely. Crowded parties can be agony.”
Factors that can fuel loneliness are abundant: depression, trauma, social rejection, loss, low self-esteem, etc. The aspect of human connection and interaction is a psychological requirement for all people, even to those who push others away. These elements of isolation are presented through three methods in a 1938 novel of friendship. John Steinbeck uses indirect characterization, discrimination, and conflict to demonstrate the effects of loneliness and need for companionship in his novel Of Mice and Men.
However, other characters are forced into isolation for reasons that are not in their control. The actions of another cause them to experience loneliness. The story begins with Robert Walton writing to his sister, Margaret, about his voyage to an undiscovered place. In these letters, as the voyage gets underway, he writes of his loneliness. Letter II states, ?
In the story Cannery Row Loneliness is a main theme to the characters lives. One of these themes is Loneliness. 'He was a dark and lonesome looking man' No one loved him. No one cared about him'(Page 6). The severity of his solitude makes this theme one of the most important. The seclusion of this man can penetrate ones innermost thoughts and leave them with a sense of belonging after hearing of this characters anguish. In addition a man who was not entirely alone was still feeling secluded. ?In spite of his friendliness and his friends Doc was a lonely and set- apart man.?(Page 132). An individual could have many people around him but could still not have the one good friend that he needs. Seclusion comes in many different forms that can be d...
Social withdrawal and social isolation can make it difficult to do the things you normally would enjoy or sometimes make it hard to get through the day. There are ways to avoid becoming distant. In “A Rose for Emily,” “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall,” “Miniver Cheevy,” “Miss Brill,” “Richard Cory,” and “Not Waving but Drowning,” each author uses the theme of isolation to illustrate all the literature.
Miss Brill’s loneliness causes her to listen in on conversations. This is her only means of achieving a sense of companionship. She feels that for a moment she is “sitting in other people’s lives just for a minute” (98). Aside from that, she is part of no one’s life.
Mother Teresa once said, “Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” In Carol Rifka Brunt’s novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Brunt tells the story of the protagonist and narrator, June, a girl who struggles with her Uncle Finn’s death along with her relationship with her immediate family, especially her older sister, Greta. During this rough time, June fears that Greta resents her, so she meets and befriends Uncle Finn’s partner, Toby, but beyond June’s belief Greta wishes to rekindle her relationship with June. As June and Toby’s relationship progresses, Greta is left behind trying to escape life’s hardships by abusing alcohol and carousing in the woods during dangerous storms. In Carol Rifka Brunt’s novel,
Solitude. Examples are found of this idea throughout the one-hundred-year life of Macondo and the Buendia family. It is both an emotional and physical solitude. It is shown geographically, romantically, and individually. It always seems to be the intent of the characters to remain alone, but they have no control over it. To be alone, and forgotten, is their destiny.
The point of view that Katherine Mansfield has chosen to use in "Miss Brill" serves two purposes. First, it illustrates how Miss Brill herself views the world and, second, it helps the reader take the same journey of burgeoning awareness as Miss Brill.
How many individuals allow the fear of loneliness overtake their whole lives? Life is fickle and most people will be a victim of circumstance at times. This is why “ A Rose for Emily” is such a great read because it allows readers to stop and analysis if they are the type of individuals which allow loneliness take over their own personal life’s. However, some people choose not to let circumstance rule them and, as they say, “time waits for no man”. Faulkner’s Emily did not have the individual confidence, or maybe self-esteem and self-worth, to believe that she could stand-alone and succeed at life especially in the face of changing times. As a mater of fact, she had always been ruled by, and depended on, men to protect, defend and act for her. From her Father, through the manservant Tobe, to Homer Barron, all her life was dependent on men. In this story I will be discussing how fear can make indivuals due senseless things.
American Author, Barbara Lazear Ascher, draws a fine line between loneliness and self-reliance in her short story, The Boxman. Ascher’s purpose of writing this short story is to make women aware of the fact that the only person that they can depend on is themselves so that later in life they can avoid the risk of being let down. She adopts a tone of admiration towards the “boxman,” the people who are content with being by themselves, to instill a sense of desire to be like the boxman into the group of women who are consuming her literature. Asher effectively highlights the subtle difference between being lonely and being self-sufficient through the use of syntactical and linguistic techniques.
American alienation and loneliness has always been an issue for the average citizen. Within the realism, modernism, and contemporary time period, loneliness was a broad topic for american authors.