An Analysis of Miss Brill’s Spiritual Predicament in Mansfield’s Miss Brill

孙亚敏

【Abstract】Katherine Mansfield is an eminent modernist writer of short stories， and Miss Brill is one of her most popular stories. It is about Miss Brills mental experiences， a process of her gradually going to reality. This paper tries to analyze her spiritual predicament， namely， her loneliness and disillusionment through appreciating the text， thus helping people better understand the story and her spiritual dilemma.

【Key words】Miss Brill； spiritual predicament； loneliness； disillusionment

Introduction

Miss Brill， a master work of Mansfield， enjoys enduring popularity. It is about a woman's Sunday outing to a park， and it employs stream-of-consciousness in which her character is revealed via her thoughts about others as she watches people from a park bench. By analyzing the test， we can know her spiritual dilemma and appreciate the story better.

1. The Overall Structure of Miss Brill

The story is in fact about Miss Brills mental experiences and it starts with her reminiscence of the past， and then about the appearance of the young lovers and finally the change in her action after she hears the young couples talking.

First， it describes her inner world when she sitting on the bench and seeing other park-goers conducts. She is an English in Paris who earns a living by teaching English and nursing. Being lonely， she often overhears other peoples dialogues and falls into an illusion that she is accepted by people. But the dialogue between the young lovers hits her hard， because they laugh at her and her treasured fur and say she should not go there at all， which breaks her illusion and drags her to the harsh fact that she is isolated and totally “different” in others eyes. At last she accepts the harsh reality. To some extent she loses her spiritual support in life.

2. Miss Brills loneliness

Miss Brill is an aging woman in a lonely condition throughout the text， and maybe her loneliness makes her isolated from the society. She is so immersed in her illusion that she goes farther and farther on the way of loneliness.

Poor and growing old， she is an outsider and has no one to talk with. She wants to integrate into the society but has to keep away from people. She goes to the park regularly to “hear” people talking to shake off loneliness， but never tries to open her mouth. When she views people in the park， she thinks life is like a drama， she is a good actor and is needed by others. The illusion drives away her loneliness， but the young couples talking breaks it cruelly. They call her “that stupid thing”， and say she should not come to the park at all， which totally denies her values. Even we readers can feel the loneliness in her deep heart.

Besides， She calls the fur “dear little thing！ it was nice to feel it again.” The former is uttered by her directly and the latter her interior monologue. The fur is no longer an ornament， it is animated and she can only speak to the fur to feel her existence. We can clearly feel her loneliness from her interaction with “the little rogue”.

3. Miss Brills disillusionment

Miss Brill has an illusion of her ideal self， but along with the young couples cynical words， her illusion breaks and she wakes up. Her disillusionment is a rather painful process of her gradually faces the reality and finally reconciles with it.

The young lovers cynical words on her breaks her illusion directly， because she is nobody in others eyes， which conflicts with her delusion. Maybe her failure originates from her attitudes toward life， for she has no subject consciousness and invariably views life passively as a bystander. Finally she goes straight home to her dark room without stopping， which means that her dream breaks， and she bitterly realizes that she is isolated and excluded by the society. No wonder her life is tragic and her spiritual predicament are pervasive in the story.

Conclusion

Miss Brill vividly presents the heroines character through her mental experiences and observation of others. She does not participate in activities actively， so she is doomed to be an outsider and rejected by the society. She is just a lonely， poor and aging woman and her ideal dream shatters finally. Maybe it is a necessary process for a woman to become mature， but no doubt it is painful.

References：

[1]Katherine Mansfield.Penguin Little Black Classics：Miss Brill[M].UK：Penguin UK，2015.

[2]宋云华.《布里尔小姐》中的幻灭悲剧与孤独[J].作家，2014 （22）.

[3]章君.梦醒时分——解读曼斯菲尔德《布里尔小姐》的幻灭主题[J].北方文学（下旬刊），2014（06）.