In the early 1930’s of Muriel Spark 's’ love vs betrayal novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie and her six students (The Brodie Set) cover the paradox of the controversial stereotype of a classical woman through the symbol of art. Between the six girls of the Brodie’s Set (Rose, Eunice, Sandy, Monica, Jenny and Mary), each had their own views on Miss Brodie and how she portrayed art as a sophistication. To Miss Brodie, “‘...women from the age of thirty and upward with voyages discovered new ideas and energetic practices in art or social welfare, education or religion’” (Sparks 33), which obviously shows that Miss Brodie values the sophisticated, dedicated woman, much like herself to her “set.” The love that Miss Brodie had for …show more content…
The art difference between the Brodie Set and Miss Brodie herself is in a way a paradox where art is both sophisticated and rebellious. Art not only serves as a sophisticated profession but can also be a way to express something. Miss Brodie’s dedication to her girls even after they went to the Senior School was respected, yet each girl in the “set” betrayed her in some way. The progression of Miss Brodie’s yearly love affairs between Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Lowther offered a simple way of betrayal for Miss Brodie 's favorite student Sandy Stranger as she herself, a 15 year old, had an affair with Miss Brodie’s one true love Mr. Lloyd. Sparks still likes to add the symbol of [the ironic] art in which Mr. Lloyd paints portraits of Sandy as he used to with Miss Brodie almost suggesting a parallel of affairs. But Sandy’s affair specifically, we see that Sandy, unlike the rest of the “set”, wanted to be exactly like Miss Brodie, though Sandy was the last one to betray Miss Brodie, she made the biggest impact on Miss Brodie because she was just as loyal and dedicated to that woman as she was to them. This art of betrayal symbolizes Miss Brodie’s everlasting contradiction that her dedication to her “set” was never true as well as her untruness to her