Truman Capote´s Miriam seems to me to be a story about how people find refuge in imagination when they feel lonely.
Mrs, H. T. Miller is a widow with a relatively boring life and who does not have many interests or friends, therefore, she imagines a person in order to give some excitement to her life.
One of the things that I found interesting when I read this short story is the fact that the girl product of Miller´s imagination is called Miriam as well as the main character. I think this is very telling, for it suggests that both Miriams are in fact the same person. H. T. Miller is both the widow woman and Miriam (the young girl product of her imagination). In my opinion, Miriam does not exist but in Miller´s mind, she is something she has created and that she is able to control for a while. Besides, the fact that this character begins to appear just after the narrator explains Miller´s lonely situation gives another reason to think that Miller did not need her when she…show more content… I think it also explores psychological issues such as mental illnesses. As the story goes by, Miller seems to be incapable of getting rid of Miriam. She does not want to let her come into her house but she always ends up letting her in, so the house seems to be a metaphor of Miller´s mind. Despite her efforts for keeping Miriam out, she eventually comes into her house, or following the metaphor I have explained, she appears in her mind. Furthermore, as the narrator states “she was alone; a fact that had not been among her thoughts for a long time […] But here in her own room in the hushed snow city were evidences she could not ignore or, she knew with startling clarity, resist”. Hence, what starts as what could be seen as a game, as something the protagonist was able to control (a product of Miller´s imagination to escape from her isolated situation) becomes a mental illness in a sense, a situation she cannot “ignore” or