The Influence Of Setting In 'Miss Brill'

Words: 620
Pages: 3
Open Document
In this story portrays how one can happily live in a fool’s paradise, yet it warns you that you will inevitably come to realize the truth about your existence. In the story we follow the main character Miss Brill a lady who spends her sunday afternoons sitting in the “Jardins Publiques” vicariously observing other people’s comings and goings. Her illusion comes crashing down when a young couple makes a spiteful remark about her presence.

In the setting, we have on the one hand a grandeurs park teeming with life, movement, sights and sounds described in great detail, the effects of which influence the character and make her come off as a human being that is content with herself even being able to look down her nose at others. “An Englishman and his wife, he wearing a dreadful Panama hat and she button boots.” (p. 2 ll. 40-42) The change of setting from the park to Miss Brill’s room is also used to underline the change of mood in the story. In this change there is hardly any description of the new setting, we get the impression there is nothing to tell but misery and loneliness. In this case, the two different settings are used for two different purposes. The first setting is used to deceive the reader, it paints the sort of picture Miss Brill would like the world to see her in. The second setting is used to reveal our character …show more content…
We only get to know her through her perception of the world in its current state. Though her self-realization might suggest a dynamic character we never learn of any real change in her personality. Try as she might Miss Brill cannot delude herself and the world around her. The reality of life and breakdown of her delusion will inevitably come through. As the story hints Miss Brill is not alone in her situation, there are other old people just like her sitting in the park. We come into the world the same way we leave it alone, fragile and completely dependent on the support and company of other human
Show More

Related Documents: The Influence Of Setting In 'Miss Brill'

Through Interactions With Others And Wider World Essay

experiences of belonging within the ballroom community. Similarly, in Miss Brill, a modernist text by Katherine Mansfield (1922), the protagonist experiences a sense of belonging and not belonging through her interactions with others and the wider world. An individual’s sense of belonging can be enriched by their interactions with others and the wider world. This is explored in the two texts, “Strictly Ballroom” by Baz Lurhamnn and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield. Admittedly, in Lurhmans “Strictly Ballroom”…

Words 1046 - Pages 5