Katherine Mansfield's short story Miss Brill
Katherine Mansfield's short story "Miss Brill" is an extremely good example of how a writer can use different literary aspect to bring about an understanding of Miss Brill the character. The use of literary aspects to reveal some truth about a character to the reader are often referred to as characterization. Three of the most easily recognized affects used in Mansfield's "Miss Brill" are her use of symbolism, setting, and points of view used by different characters in her story. Symbolism plays an extremely large part in explaining Miss Brill the character. This can be easily showed by the relationship between Miss Brill and her "alter-ego"; the fur. Miss Brill lives for the days that she spends in the park, this can be seen when she rubs "the life back into [her fur's] dim little eyes"(33). Not only does this quote reveal that the trips to the park "rubs" life back into Miss Brill, but also the condition of the furs eyes might also imply that Miss Brill is not as young and full of life as she once might have been. It seems that Mansfield was deeply trying to convey this bond between Miss Brill and the fur. For example, throughout the story when Miss brill is happy th
e fur is also happy, and when the fur is insulted then Miss Brill is also insulted. Perhaps the best example of this bond is when Miss Brill is sitting in her cupboard like room and putts her fur away, and thinks that she hears "something crying"(36) Mansfield's "Miss Brill" is an excellent example of how a writer can give understanding of a character through characterization. She does this by allowing the reader to understand Miss Brill through the readers own methods. The most obvious methods that are available to the reader are the characterization methods of symbolism, setting, and points of view used by different characters in her story. Miss Brill's "room [is] like a cupboard"(36). This allusion Mansfield gives to Miss Brill's room is valuable because of two reasons. First, it is a "thread" is sewn into the story in order to keep every vital detail together. This term was first used to describe the odd, funny, old people that Miss Brill perceives in the park "Sunday after Sunday"(34). It does not accure to Miss Brill that she is also one of these "funny old people" , however, Mansfield tells the audience that she is indeed one of these "funny old people" when
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Approximate Word count = 798
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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