The Lonely lady
Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill is a story of loneliness and disillusion. Miss Brill is an English teacher who goes to the park every Sunday and enjoys eavesdropping people's conversations. One of these Sundays she decides to go to the park wearing her fox fur, although the weather was not cold. As usual she pays attention to people's clothes, chats and actions, as she tries to forget her own sadness. She thinks about her pupils, her acting and her previous listening, nobody talks to her, though. Then, a couple of teenagers appears and starts commenting on her staying there alone, on her eavesdropping and on her fur. She goes home and passes the bakery by (the place where she used to buy a slice of honey-cake as a Sunday treat), enters her "cupboard" room, takes her fur and puts it inside its old box.The story is told from Miss Brill's point of view. The narrator describes her feelings and thoughts, taking the reader to her constant fight against loneliness. She is constantly assaulted by thoughts of sadness and is constantly denying them: "And when she breathed, something light and sad - no, not sad, exactly - something gentle seemed to move in her bosom" "And what they played was warm, sunny, yet there was just a fa
int chill - a something, what was it? - not sadness - no, not sadness - a something that made you want to sing." In the park she sees some old people who were sitting on the benches. She describes them ironically: There is also a confirmation of her loneliness by the fact that she listens to people's conversations, notices their clothes, acts and characteristics although no one talks directly to her:
Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Brill, Brill English, Miss Brill's, miss brill, people's conversations, eavesdropping people's conversations, people's lives, inside box, nearly odd, deep sadness, eavesdropping people's, trying live, ermine toque,
Approximate Word count = 888
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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