Miss Brill 'And It Would Be Different If'

In the short stories “Miss Brill” written by Katherine Mansfield and “It would be different if” by Maggie Mitchell, focus on two characters who are different but also very similar. In “Miss Brill” we meet Miss Brill who is an old lonely English teacher. Miss Brill goes to the park every Sunday and just watches life happen before. She does this to escape the reality. In “It would be different if” we meet Nikki who is a hair dresser who wishes her friend from high school was with her. Niki had plans in high school to be with her friend Jeff but, Jeff ends up being with a girl named Amber. Niki gets very jealous and ends imaging What life would be Jeff was with her. Both of these women have a lot of differences but they are both in denial of

Miss Brill is an older woman who is a English teacher, is a very lonely women. Every Sunday she dresses up in nice clothing and sits in the park to watch people. On one particular Sunday Miss Brill put on her nice fur, “She had taken it out of the box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes.”(259). In this quote it gives the reader the first hint the Miss Brill is depressed and lonely. This quote also hints that the fur symbolizes Miss Brill. When it says that the dusting of the moth powder and the rubbing of the eyes gave it life, symbolizes that going to the park gave Miss Brill life. Throughout the whole story the author proves the point that Miss Brill is truly depressed. Like on page 259 at the end of the first paragraph, Miss Brill is talking to herself and admits to herself that she is depressed. This is shown on page 259 when the author states, “She felt a tingling in her hands and arms, but that came from walking, she supposed. And when she breathed, something tight and sad-no, not sad, exactly…” (259). She

They both do not want to face their own struggles. For Nikki she wants that to be Jeff, she spends her time imagining what life would be like if it went by her plan. Miss. Brill is very lonely, she spends her time surrounding herself around other people’s conversations. While they are both similar in that matter they are also different. Miss Brill is older and is an English teacher who is not comfortable with the idea that she is lonely. Niki is a hairdresser who is very envious of the girl that ended up with Jeff. Miss. Brill who every Sunday goes to the park and sits on the bench. She watches people walk by and listens to the people next to her. She does that to fill the void of being lonely. At the end of the story the young couple made her face reality. Niki on the other hand never faced her reality. Nikki spent her time imagine Jeff coming in to her hair salon and sitting down. She took that as a sign that Jeff wanted her to wait for him. She never faced her reality like Miss. Brill did. Although, the one thing they do have in common is their fear of facing