Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

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Through loneliness and lack of communication to the outside world, one can become distant to reality. Katherine Mansfield’s gloomy short story, “Miss Brill,” displays the effects of what happens when reality sets in from realization of what others may think of you. Mansfield shows that there comes times in life that can be too hard for the average person to deal with, but it all depends on how well that the obstacles are dealt with that will make a difference. If you handle the situation properly then the outcome will have a positive outcome, if not it can diminish all happiness. It is quickly shown that Miss Brill has an odd relationship with her fur coat (1, 3-8). It is Mansfield’s use of symbolism that shows a deeper understanding of Miss Brill’s anti-social personality. Mansfield creates “the woman in the Ermine toque,” in similar ways to Miss Brill to show the connection with her own fur coat, for comparison, which also shows Brill’s outlook on reality.…show more content…
She compares some of the people to family: “It was like someone playing with only the family to listen” (2, 3-5). She compares everyone, and just about everything, to something else. In a way hinting early on that this escape from the life that she has; an escape from the truth. Mansfield shows that Miss Brill is actually part of nothing at all. Brill sees others at the park who are also sitting on the benches as “funny…odd, silent, nearly all old…as though they had just come from dark little rooms” (5, 8-12). Rather than accepting the truth that she is also one of them, she creates a made up world to hide from the

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