The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
The eponymous heroine in Muriel Spark’s ‘The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie’ is an influential schoolteacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls 1930s Edinburgh. Spark’s plot charts the decline of Miss Brodie’s influence over a group of her favourite pupils known as her ‘Set’. This decline parallels the growing independence of thought and intellectual maturing of Sandy Stranger, a key member of the Set. The narrative is developed from a decisive moment where Sandy is seen to react against the Brodie influence.Within the Set, Mary Macgregor is employed as a foil to the others. Where they are graceful, artistic and intelligent, Mary is ‘…a silent lump, a nobody whom everybody could blame.’ (p8) Nevertheless, Mary is an integral member. During a walk, Sandy reacts against Set and Brodie thinking by wanting to be nice to Mary: The sound of Miss Brodie’s presence, just when it was on the tip of Sandy’s tongue to be nice to Mary Macgregor, arrested the urge … She perceived herself, the absent Jenny, the ever-blamed Mary, Rose, Eunice and Monica, all in a frightening little moment, in unified compliance to the destiny of Miss Brodie, as if God had willed them to birth for that purpose. (p30) Prior to this point, Sandy, like the ot
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss Brodie, Miss Brodies, Mary Spark, Teddy Lloyd, Sandy Set, Marcia Blaine, Mary Macgregor, Mathematics Sandys, Sandy Stranger, miss brodie, Jean Brodie, miss brodies, marcia blaine, nice mary, teddy lloyd, influence miss brodie, sandy character, sandys growing, brodies influence, brodie influence, influence miss, miss brodies influence, miss jean brodie, prime miss jean,
Approximate Word count = 1054
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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