Katherine Mansfield’s story “Miss Brill” explores people’s nature under the watching and imaging of Miss Brill, a middle-aged, unmarried and lonely English woman. The story is set in Jardins Publiques (Public Gardens), a park where Miss Brill goes to with her fur stole on every Sunday. She likes to sit there alone watching, in detail, the happenings around her. Through that, Mansfield expresses the theme which is the loneliness of Miss Brill. Mansfield uses the symbolism such as the “fox fur” and “the ermine toque” to support the theme.
The “fox fur” is the primary symbol and it is also the most treasured thing of Miss Brill. “The fur that Miss Brill wears in the park in many ways mirrors her own life” (McManus). It symbolizes “both Miss Brill's physical and mental states” (Turner). Miss Brill takes the fur out of the box and talks to it: “Dear little thing! It was
…show more content…
“The woman in the ermine toque whom Miss Brill observes in the park symbolizes the title character herself” (Wilson). As Miss Brill describes, “her hair, her face, even her eyes, was the same color as the shabby ermine” (Mansfield 258), yellow. It is just as Miss Brill’s fur, so Miss Brill feels that the ermine toque is similar to her. They are all old, alone and “may possibly have seen better days” (McManus). Miss Brill notices that the ermine toque is so pleased to see the man in the grey suit. Miss Brill wonders if they are going to meet that afternoon? She seems to hope it would happen. When the man blows the cigarette into the woman’s face and walks on away, Miss Brill feels that “the ermine toque was alone” (Mansfield 258), as is Miss Brill. Miss Brill experiences what the ermine toque feels: the loneliness. She also feels the rejection by imagining the drum beat calling out “The Brute! The Brute” (Mansfield 258). Miss Brill could experience all that feelings because the ermine toque is just as her, an