Loneliness In Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

A person who is lonely is defined with various depressing feelings that are caused by being by oneself. “They did not speak. This was disappointing, for Miss Brill always looked forward to the conversation.”(Mansfield 183) In “Miss Brill”, time and time again Miss Brill earns for a companionship, which in the end leads to her heart getting broke. Katharine Mansfield’s character, Miss Brill, encounters a realization in life everyone fears: loneliness and aging, due to the hurtful words of people. Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill” is based in a time and place where many people were going through a state of chaos: Europe in the 1920s. Still recovering from one World War and in the midst of another, unlike other European countries’ people, France’s

“Although it was so brilliantly fine–the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of light like white wine splashed over the JardinsPubliques–Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her fur.” (Mansfield 182) Miss Brill even had a weekly routine of appearing at the town park and eating a honey cake.Midway through Miss Brill’s day, her confidence takes a blow. This positive mindset is lacerated by the harsh words of couples, including the fur coat and being called “a stupid old thing” (188).After the devastation of her pride, Miss Brill decides to leave the park and the promise of finding a companionship in her dark life. She even skips out on her Sunday honey cake, which further shows the devastation that Miss Brill is experiencing. Even though this is a poignant predicament in the story, Miss Brill does what is least expected of her: putting the fur coat away. This is the low point in the story and Mansfield even goes along to say, “She unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying.” (Mansfield 189) This shows how attached Miss Brill is to her aged fur