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Mental Illness In Miss Brill

814 Words4 Pages

In Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill”, the protagonist isn’t just a woman who is a bit antisocial, but is actually a high functioning autistic person. The three main symptoms of this form of autism are; “social-interaction difficulties, communication challenges, and a tendency to engage in repetitive behaviors”. Throughout the story Miss Brill exhibits each of these symptoms multiple times, and when she is presented with a chance to communicate with anyone. She is swayed by her disorder, and her actions are chosen for her. The first sign that Miss Brill is suffering from a disorder is when she is sitting around the park on the bench, and isn’t communicating with anyone. She doesn’t attempt to even follow the rules of etiquette by simply greeting, or saying goodbye to the elderly couple. She is just observing the world around her, but is unable to summon up the nerve to actually begin a conversation with anyone around her. At one point the narrator …show more content…

Miss Brill is ruled by routine, and eventually convinces herself that if she were to ever break this routine, then people will diffidently notice her absence. A second moment of where her OCD is displayed is by her sitting in the same “special” spot every Sunday. Now, it can be said that she just prefers this spot over any other place, but during the moment where she is being insulted; she didn’t move to a new area to continue enjoying the play happening around her. By choosing to stay there, and not even consider moving to a new area just proves that she is fixated on that exact spot, to the point of obsession. If she had been devastated, to the point of breaking her delusions of being an actor in a play, then she wouldn’t have been able to stay for the remainder of the performance. It is that uncontrollable need to do a certain task, a certain way that allowed her to remain seated until it was time to

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