Miss Brill

Mansfield’s opening scene is one of great natural beauty and enjoyment, expressed through Miss Brill’s description of the park and the weather, but there is an undercurrent of threat, exemplified by the atmosphere: “The air was motionless, but when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip” (Paragraph 1). As she sits and listens to the band, Miss Brill feels a little sadness, which tempers her enjoyment of the beautiful day, the music, and people-watching in the park.

Miss Brill cheerfully attempts to overcome this sadness, to live in the moment and fully enjoy the day, yet clues to her lonely and bare existence creep into the narrative at several points. For example, Miss Brill exposes the emptiness of her own life when she expends so much emotion on the English woman she remembers discussing spectacles with her husband. Her preoccupation with the banalities other people’s lives, with the interpersonal relationships between strangers, suggests a lack of purpose and personal connection in her life.

This preoccupation with the intimate lives of the strangers continues as Miss Brill observes the woman in the ermine toque talking with the man in gray. The parallel between Miss Brill and the woman in the ermine toque is clear. Both are older women wearing faded furs; both are pretending that their lives are gayer and brighter than they are. The rejection of the woman in the ermine toque upsets Miss Brill so much that she calls the man “The Brute” (Paragraph 8). She also perceives that the band has sensed the old man’s crestfallen mood, “play[ing] more softly” before “chang[ing] again and playing more quickly, more gayly than ever,” when the old woman smiles brighter than ever and walks away (Paragraph 8), as if she is a starring figure in a scene, one worthy of musical accompaniment. All these details foreshadow Miss Brill’s own fantasies of grandeur and rejection later in the story.

Despite these small shadows on her day, Miss Brill continues her reverie, imagining herself as part of the play being staged before her. Through the analogy of the play, she feels connected to the people in the park and feels that she has an important role in the ongoing drama. In fact, she imagines herself as an actress, and thinks about telling her invalid client that she has been an actress for a long time. She allows herself to go even further, imagining all of the people in the park singing along with the band: they are all part of something uplifting and inspiring that they create together.

Miss Brill is indeed an actress, and a fine one. She hides her sadness and loneliness even from herself, focusing instead on the joys in her life—her fur necklet, the beautiful weather, and the inspiring music in the park. She imagines the lives of strangers and eavesdrops on their conversations to find a sense of belonging and connection to others. She is such a good actress that she does not equate herself with the other old, funny, staring people in the park, does not see her predicament reflected in the woman in the ermine toque. The reader, however, cannot miss the comparison.

The story’s moving climax arrives when Miss Brill is shaken from her dream world, where she is an important actress in the play of life. She is brought back to reality by two young lovers, who disparage her “old mug” which she should keep “at home” (Paragraph 13); to them, she is just an insignificant old lady in an ugly, outdated fur necklet whom nobody wants around.

Miss Brill is emotionally devastated by these insults, especially coming from this young couple who are so much in love with each other, and to whom she has given the starring role in her internal drama. Their insults and mockery are all the more damaging because she sees them in such positive terms.

Her day ruined and her fantasy world collapsed, Miss Brill skips her cherished trip to the bakery for her weekly treat and goes home to her “cupboard” (Paragraph 18), where she shuts up her fur in its box, imagining that she hears it crying. Those imagined cries represent Miss Brill’s as-yet unshed tears.