Anh Vu
Professor Melody Fowler
ENGL-1302
September 26, 2014
The Theme of Loneliness in "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield
"Miss Brill" is one of the most famous fictions that were written by Katherine Mansfield in the early 1920s. The main character was mentioned in this story named Miss Brill. She can be described as a widowed old woman that spent all those last years of her life in the isolation and loneliness. She kept doing the same thing every weekend, putting on her fur, going to the park, sitting on the same bench, watching and listening over people's conversations. The image of Miss Brill in Mansfield's story reflects the truth about the relationship among people in this current society. Unfortunately, this modern society doesn't seem to have enough places for everyone. When those people like Miss Brill getting older without the caring of their relatives, they live alone, friendless and almost ignored.
The hilltop village of Brill, Buckinghamshire, Eng...
English: Brill fire station Brill fire station, Te...
English: Brill Windmill, Brill, Oxfordshire, Engla...Miss Brill of Katherine Mansfield is a concrete example that illustrates the implied message of the author about loneliness, illusion and the gap between the illusion and reality.
At the beginning of the story, we can realize that Miss Brill lives alone and nobody except her fur is her closet friend. Fur is stated for the non-living thing. She does not have any friends even a pet. We can feel and sympathy for her loneliness. She takes her fur and goes to the park every weekend to get out of the loneliness from her dark room which she calls "cupboards". She sits on the same bench and watches through people's conversations. She keeps doing the same things week by week because it gives her the feeling of connection with the other people despite in the fact there is no connection or real communication...