The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
By Muriel Spark
1. Miss Brodie.
a. Contrast Miss Brodie's and Miss Mackay's principles of education. Is there any real difference?
b. Is there any real difference between Miss Brodie's practices and preaches to the girls?
c. How do you know that Miss Brodie's methods are unusual?
d. What is her point of view on examinations?
e. Is there any more information about Miss Brodie's character?
f. There are two references to the “prime” of Miss Jean Brodie. Bearing in mind that this is the title
of this novel, say what you think it means.
2. Miss Brodie´s pupils.
a. Although only the names of two girls are mentioned, how many more pupils were taking a walk
with Miss Brodie?
b. What are Rose's obvious interests at present?
c. What do you learn about her future?
d. What is Sandy worried about?
e. What is Sandy's relation to the hero of “ Kidnapped ”?
f. What is the Highland dress? Why would Alan Breck arrive in it?
GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What is Miss Brodie's "prime"? What does she mean by the term and why is it so significant—she
announces it to her class and refers to it time and again? It also brought up in the last line of the
book.
2. Do we ever learn why she selects the particular girls she does as her Brodie girls? Talk about the
girls, their relationships with one another, and their relationship with the school. Are they
individuals...or conformists?
3. What is Miss Brodie's purpose in creating the Brodie set? Is it purely educational...or something
else? What does she want for (or from) them? In what ways, if at all, does the Brodie set change
over the years? Do the girls alter their feelings for Miss Brodie by the time their schooling ends?
4. What do you think of Miss MacKay, the headmistress, who continually attempts to undermine
Miss Brodie? At the end, she says to Sandy, "I'm afraid she put ideas into your young heads." Why
has that bothered her for so many years? Is that not precisely what education is about, at least Miss
MacKay's own philosophy of teaching? Is Miss MacKay a watchful headmistress doing her job? Or is
she inhibiting a vibrant, creative teacher?
5. Speaking of the philosophy of education: according to Miss Brodie, she and Miss MacKay differ on
the correct method of education. Discuss the following passage and decide whom you agree with:
To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul. To Miss MacKay it is a
putting in of something that is not there.... I call that intrusion.... Miss Mackay's method is to thrust a
lot of information into the pupil's head; mine is a leading out of knowledge, and that is true
education as is proved by the root meaning [of the word].
6. We know Miss Brodie only through the eyes of the girls, primarily Sandy. How does their
perception of her change by the time they are 17 years of age...and also when they are even older?
7. Muriel Spark wrote with a great deal of wit, and her humor is particularly evident in this novel
because we view the adult world through the eyes of innocents. What are some of the sections you
find particularly funny?
8. Is Miss Brodie a good person? Is she a good teacher? Try, in fact, to explain the enigma that is
Miss Jean Brodie? What, for instance, is her background—do we ever find out?
9. What about Teddy Lloyd and Gordon Lowther, Miss Brodie's two love interests? What does she
want with them? She refuses Lowther's entreaties to marry her—why? And more mysteriously, she
encourages Rose to have an affair with Lloyd—why, again?
10. When she is finally betrayed, was the one who did so right or wrong? What prompted the girl
tell Miss MacKay what she told her? Was it a betrayal?
11. In the final analysis, how do you come to think of Miss Brodie? Is she a noble figure? A tragic
one? A visionary? Is she silly? Is she dangerous or well-meaning? What impact did she have on her
girls, lasting or short-term?
Senior Literature
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Chapter 1-4 Study Questions
Chapter 1
1. Describe the girls who make up the Brodie Set:
a. Monica Douglas
b. Rose Stanley
c. Eunice Gardiner
d. Sandy Stanger
e. Jenny Gray
f.
Mary Macgregor
Name ____________________________________
2. Why does Miss Brodie want to meet with the Brodie set? In what way(s) teaching style
eccentric?
Chapter 2
1. What is revealed about the way Mary will die?
2. How is Mary treated by Miss Brodie and the Brodie set?
3. According to Miss Brodie, when is your prime?
4. What story is Sandy and Jenny writing? What is it about?
5. Why do the girls intentionally get ink on their blouses?
6. What do we discover about Miss Brodie’s “retirement”?
7. Where does the Brodie Set go on the day the heat breaks down?
8. What does Sandy become when she’s older?
Chapter 3
1. Describe Miss Brodie’s kind of spinsters.
2. What was the subject of Rosetti’s painting?
3. How does the rest of the staff regard Miss Brodie?
4. Who were the exceptions (to #3)?
5. Who does Monica say she saw Miss Brodie kissing?
6. What does Miss Brodie read to the girls in while they’re in sewing class? 
7. Later, in a flash forward, what does Miss Brodie reveal to Sandy about Mr. Lloyd and Mr.
Lowther?
8. What kind of information does Miss Mackay get out of the Brodie Set at their tea?
Chapter 4
1. Describe the differences between the senior teachers and the elementary teachers.
2. In what ways did Miss MacKay attempt to break up the Brodie Set?
3. What happened during Mr. Lloyd’s art class?
4. How did Miss Brodie feel about the Kerr sisters taking care of Mr. Lowther?
5. What is the reaction of Miss Brodie when she hears the girls have been to Mr. Lloyd’s home?
6. What news did Ellen Kerr and Miss Gaunt bring Miss MacKay?
7. Who has been sitting for Mr. Lloyd?
Chapter 5
1. What is Sandy’s reaction when she sees the portrait that Mr. Lloyd painted of Rose?
2. What happens between Sandy and Mr. Lloyd in the attic?
3. What is Mr. Lloyd’s reaction when it is suggested that Miss Brodie be invited for tea?
4. Who did Miss Brodie decide to confide in?
5. Who does Mr. Lowther marry?
Chapter 6
1. What happened to Joyce Emily Hammond?
2. Where did Mary and Jenny go when they left the Brodie Set?
3. What was Sandy to become?
4. What do we learn about Sandy and Mr. Lloyd?
5. What is revealed about Joyce Emily’s trip to Spain?
6. Who betrayed Miss Brodie? What did Miss Mackay finally get that she used to force Miss
Brodie to resign?
7. In the end, do you think Miss Brodie realized who it was that betrayed her? Why or why
not?