How do you see life as you live it? In Katherine Mansfield's short story "Miss Brill", the author appears to tell the story of a woman who merely is an observer of life. Throughout her life Miss Brill sits on the sidelines while watching the game in all its striving, contending, cruelty, and passion. Living her life as a dream hurt Miss Brill in the end, for all her daydreaming and fascinating thoughts began to over run her life.
The story of "Miss Brill" portrays the life of a woman who lives her life as a scene from a play, and a captive audience. Miss Brill is frozen in time, wearing a ratty fox fur as if she were in the theater instead of seated in her "special seat" in the park on Sunday, observing the scenes played out one after another. Once Miss Brill is in the park she feels she is at the theater watching a play: "They were all on stage. They weren't only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday" (434). Miss Brill has a mind set that every Sunday there is a performance in the park that is acted out
It is at this point of the story that Mrs. Brill shows her emotion through her fur. Mansfield's handling clearly shows that Brill's actions are not as those of the people around her. When she later returns her fur to it's box and puts the lid on it, she thinks she hears something crying. She hears this because she is embarrassed, and now knows that her fairy tale Sunday's now are over.
Reading this shows that Miss Brill is very opinionated about the characters in her fantastical play. In the end of the story Miss Brill doesn't see herself as one of the "funny people," Leading her to an overwhelming feeling when she finds out that not everyone sees life in the same way she does. In most cases people have their own different views of life as seen from the characters in the story of "Miss Brill".
Though the fur was a little warn out it made the perfect costume. Until the moment that would definitely change her life forever. Mansfield writes,
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