Hopeless Flee

Hopeless Flee

There will be many obstacles in life that are too hard for the average human to deal with, but it is how well the obstacles are dealt with that will make a difference. If the obstacles are handled properly, it could have positive effects; however, if they are handled poorly, it could diminish happiness. Katherine Mansfield's short story, "Miss Brill," uses symbol, plot, character, and point of view, to reveal the theme that creating an alternate reality through the lives of other people will not relieve loneliness.

Miss Brill's fur, the symbol in the short story, is contextual. The fur is a contextual symbol because if the fur were placed in another story, it would not symbolize a lonely woman. According to Saralyn Daly, " When she packs away the furpiece...her identification with that object is so complete that the reader fears she weeps and yet is too valiant to acknowledge it" (90). The fur symbolizes Miss Brill's life in the sense that she has put her life in a box, like her fur, and needs a companion to take her out and rub the life back into her. When the sad, little eyes ask "what has been happening to me," those are the thoughts of Miss Brill being brought out through her fur. At the end of the story, in spite of her newly found awareness, Miss Brill denies some of her own emotions when "she thought she heard something crying." The tears are obviously her own, and once again she is feeling emotion through her fur. The connection of passion with the fur is forced into a character Miss Brill acknowledges, and the reader is alert of much more (Berkman 75). The author mentions that Miss Brill is pleased with her decision to wear her fur coat. Miss Brill wishes to reveal her best to the public, hoping that someone will notice her sitting in the park. This is important because Miss Brill is neglecting reality through her fur, pretending that the fur is feeling emotion, to keep from feeling loneliness.

The structure of the story follows that of a traditional plot diagram. A traditional plot diagram helps to emphasize how Miss Brill's everyday activities have become a tradition; her Sunday ritual helps her cope with loneliness. Patrick Morrow agrees that, "the main character exists in a timeless world made of routines and fantasy" (82). The narrator points out that Miss Brill has a special seat, and she even notices that the conductor is wearing a new jacket. While the band plays, Miss Brill goes to the park often enough to know when things are different in her surroundings. Miss Brill comes to the park so much she believes that if she were not there the others would notice she was not present. Her every Sunday outings provide an opportunity for Miss Brill to place herself in the company of others and to get out of "the little dark room" in which she lives. One of Miss Brill's observations about the "odd, silent nearly all old people, and from the way they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards!" whom she sees every Sunday at the park hints to the reader that she might be one of those people. Miss Brill is unable to recognize that she is a part of the mass of people she precisely describes (Morrow 82). Since Miss Brill does have a tradition of going to the park and sitting in on people's lives, it is appropriate to have a traditional plot line.

The main character, Miss Brill, is a round character. When the young man begins to insult Miss Brill, knowing she is listening, he questions, "why does she come here at all - who wants her?" Immediately, the protective shield of her reality comes crashing down. Miss Brill also breaks her tradition of going to the baker's to get a slice of honeycake, which shows how her character has made a change. She does not even feel worthy enough to treat herself to the usual slice of cake. When Miss Brill is insulted by the boy, it opens her eyes to her loneliness and the way she tries to suppress that lonely feeling. Not only is Miss Brill round in a literary sense, but her life takes a round cycle of emotion. She is happy with her alternate reality in the beginning, and then her reality is crumbled. She realizes her loneliness, but in the end, she doubts her emotions. As the day goes by the image Miss Brill has of herself endures and unexpected modification (Kobler 64). Miss Brill sees herself as an actress performing an essential part, but her image is destroyed when the boy says the mean things about her. Her roundness is important because she realizes that her alternate reality leads to the realization of her loneliness and that she cannot escape loneliness any longer by sitting in on other people's lives. The stock characters in the story are important because they are part of the reason for Miss Brill's change and the other stock characters help to exaggerate her loneliness by the way she speaks of them. She wishes so badly to be a part of the crowd that she imagines life in the park as a play and she is an actress playing an essential part (Morrow 82).

The point of view in this story is limited point of view. The narrator of the story limits all thoughts to those of Miss Brill. The things that help contribute to the story at the same time shrinks it: "We see not only what Miss Brill sees, but we see how she sees what she sees, as it is reported in her own language..."(Mandel 474). The author offers no explanation about Miss Brill's past, leaving it to the reader to draw a conclusion. The harmful decline from unreal delight is deepened by getting exposed from her standpoint (Daly 90). By using limited