Summary of “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield
Author: Katherine Mansfield
First Published: 1923
Type of Plot: Psychological
Time of Work: The late nineteenth century
Setting: France
Principal Characters: Miss Brill
Genres: short fiction (short story)
“ Miss Brill”– while reading. Read to the break in p.3
1. Answer these questions:
(a) What is Miss Brill doing today?
(b) Complete this sentence describing Miss Brill’s thoughts (from p.1):
She had become really quite expert,…..at ……….., at ……………... just for a
minute while they ……………………… .
(c) How does Miss Brill describe:
The old couple; the “ermine toque”; the gentleman
(d) How do we know that Miss Brill does not have much money?
(e) What kind of life does Miss Brill have?
(f) Who does she share her thoughts with?
2. Discuss these questions:
(a) Would you like to have a life like Miss Brill’s? Say why or why not.
(b) Do you like Miss Brill ? Say why/why not.
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(c) What tone does KM show towards the Miss Brill in this story? Look at
the beginning and the ending of the story.
After reading…
1. Discuss these questions.
(a) What does Miss Brill realise when she is listening to the
conversation between the boy and girl (p.3)?
(b) Why is this such a surprise to her?
What does she now realise about her life?
(c) Comment on what you think about the past paragraph of the story.
(d) What thoughts do you now have about the title of this story?
“Miss Brill” a summary for discussion
This is a short story which shows us the tragedy of one old lady. In the
wider sense, however, it brings to our attention the lack of joy and the
tediousness of life that some old people experience.
We are constantly being asked by KM to look and see what happens to
those who, perhaps through no fault of their own, end up as sad,
lonely, unhappy or disillusioned people.
 According to KM, love is important and we surely all agree with
her; we all need someone or something to love. Miss Brill centres
her affections on an ‘ermine toque’ and her fur; clings to her outdated, close-fitting cap, also made out of the skin of a dead animal
which:
 “…she’d bought when her hair was yellow….”
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 What is your comment on this?
 We see, through the “ermine toque” the indignities a person will
suffer for a little affection, however false or shallow that may be.
 We are made to wonder why some people cling to life,
 “…frail head on the cotton pillow, the hollowed eyes, the open
mouth and the high pinched nose…”
Why don’t people just die?
We look into relationships. What happens to couple when they no
longer communicate?
We are asked to witness the disharmony that exists when couples
reach the petty stage, one obviously needing attention from the other.
A woman who needs to wear glasses rejects suggestions from a
patient husband , petulantly whines about trivial things, when perhaps
she should be listening.
Do these examples illustrate another theme of KM’s
“…human relationships in this world are unsatisfactory…”
…….but perhaps she just meant her own world?
Why do young people use the elderly as the object of their cruel and
often senseless taunts?
We see an old man almost toppled as four girls take up all the walking
space. Miss Brill is humiliated by a young couple who make sure that
she hears herself being called
“…silly old mug…”
Would the gentleman in the park have been so cruel,
“…breathed a great puff (of smoke ) into her face, flicked the match
away and walked on…”
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had he loved ‘ermine toque’? We think not!
People in love are always on their best behaviour, showing the good
side of themselves, until their love dies, when the other cruel side of
themselves (Jekyll and Hyde) appears.
 We see how some old people, who may appear “dead” on the
outside have, like Miss Brill, an inner being so alive, as seen in her
creative imagination. She creates her own world, one where she is a
participant. She is one of the main characters in the pageant of life.
She is alive in her mind, and, most of all, she is accepted.
 She, like many other elderly people, is still alive even though her
body shows decay. But society sees only the outside, it is not
interested in the talent, the waste, of a life being dried up.
 Society pushes the old onto the benches on the outside of life,
while the young (who may not be as bright or intelligent) take up
centre stage, as happens in the short story “Miss Brill”.
Themes
 The main themes are:
 Illusion versus reality.
 The treatment of old people in our society.
 Sadness as part of being human.
 There are fleeting glances at the following themes:
 Lack of communication in marriage
 Unsatisfactory relationships
The human need for love
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Illusion versus reality
 Miss Brill has a vivid imagination. She sees the people at the Jardins
Publiques as actors on a stage.
 In her mind, she is one of the main players. She believes that her
presence there is extremely important and that if for some reason
she could not turn up, then the play could not go on.
 She uses ‘stage talk’:
 “Who would believe the sky at the back wasn’t painted?”
 “…a little brown dog trotted on and then slowly trotted off…”
 “The hero and the heroine…”
 Note the little drama of the “ermine toque” and after her
humiliation by him – “she smiled more brightly than ever -the show
must go on!
 The newspaper read to the old man become a manuscript.
 The old people are ‘props’, the background necessary for the
pageant. The people are ‘the crowd’ as they await the hero and
heroine who are supposed to bring the happy ending but they bring
the shattering of the illusion “why does she come here at all?”
Old People
 “…a fine old man in a velvet coat, this hands clasped over a huge
carved walking stick…”
 “…a big old woman, sitting upright with a roll of knitting on her
lap…”
 Note the adjectives – and the roles ascribed to the couple - he sits
and watches, she must be busy.
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 What did they have in common? “They did not speak.” Had they
run out of things to say or was this companionable silence?
 Reread about the Englishman and his wife…how is their “act”
portrayed?
 “The old people sat on a bench, as still at statues.”
 “They were odd, silent , nearly all old, and from the way they
stared, they looked as if they had come from dark little rooms or
even – even cupboards!”
 This is possible the saddest part of the story – they, like the fur find
the sun too much for them. They have nowhere to go and no-one
to talk to. They stare into space, lost in the memories of when they,
too were actors on their own stage, part of the inner circle of
humanity.
 “Other people sat…they were nearly always the same….Sunday
after Sunday…” the repetition of “Sunday” echoes the lifelessness,
the boredom of those sitting on the benches. What does this story
tell us about the place of old people in society?
Sadness
 A vein of sadness runs through the story. The fur:-”What has been
happening to me? Said the sad little eyes.” Miss Brill “rubbed the
life into those dim little eyes”.
 The fur has been shut away in the dark in a box and is having
trouble adjusting to the light.
 We see the same deadness in the “hollowed eyes” of the invalid old
man, but no amount of rubbing will bring life back to his tired old
eyes.
 Referring to old people, alive people, who are not even as lucky as
Miss Brill’s fur…
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 “They looked as though they’d just come from dark little rooms or
even – even cupboards!”
 She gives her fur some loving attention – it is all she has to love..
 Like most lonely people, Miss Brill has immunised herself against
feeling. If you don’t care, you can’t get hurt. But now her emotions
are stirring. What has caused this change?
 “And when she breathed, something light and sad, no, not sad,
exactly, - something gentle seemed to move in her bosom.”
 She doesn’t understand what she feels. Is it sadness? Perhaps a
realisation that all she has to love is a piece of old fur. Perhaps
“gentle” because at least she has that to love. She’s not sure.
Neither are we.
 The same words are repeated again. Perhaps a hint of what was to
come:
 “…a faint chill – a something, what was it? – not sadness – no not
sadness…”
 The ‘faint chill’ echoes a change in temperature,
 “…and there was just a faint chill, like he chill from a glass of iced
water…”
 “and what they played was warm, sunny, yet there was just a faint
chill…’
 There is also change coming for Miss Brill. She feels warm in the
comfort of her dream world. She is secure in the knowledge that
she is an accepted part of this community, the pageant she has
created in her mind.
 However, with a few thoughtless words:
“Why doesn’t she keep her silly old mug at home?”
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it’s almost as if someone has “thrown a bucket of cold water” over
her.
In one moment her warm dreams have been shattered and she has
been reduced to one of the old people; the people she had rejected as
being,
“odd, silent”
who sit as “still as statues”.
The Ending…
The Ending…
She and her fur return home. The fur to its “little dark box” and she, to
her “little dark room” no bigger than a cupboard.
The “crying” she hears is possibly her own inner being. Rejection is a
powerful weapon. It can devastate the one being rejected, especially if
there is no one else there to comfort them.
We cannot imagine how it feels to be so isolated , so rejected by
society that she has to repress all emotion, so that she can survive life.
The theme of sadness lingers, even when the story ends. We have to
ask ourselves:
“Why are people so cruel to one another?”
Imagery - The Fur
“…rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes…”
“What has happened to me?” said the sad little eyes.
“Little rogue! …Little rogue biting its tail just by her left ear.”
“She could have taken it off and laid it on her lap and stroked it.”
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“It’s her fu-fur which is so funny,” giggled the girl.”It’s exactly like a
fried whiting.”
“She unclasped the necklet quickly , quickly, without looking, laid it
inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something
crying.”
Here we see the dream of a lonely woman being shattered. She starts
the day full of anticipation. She wears her prized possession, the fur. It
is her companion in the chilly days, She touches its, a welcome friend
and for a moment lets herself feel an emotion.
Imagery - The Band
 “and the band sounded louder and gayer…”
 The band sets the pace for the story. It also forms a parallel
metaphor for the emotions in Miss Brill. At the beginning of the
story, the “season” has begun and the bandsmen are enthusiastic.
 “…the conductor wearing a new coat…”
 “He scraped with his foot and flapped his arms like a rooster about
to crow…”
 The conductor is leading by example. His uniform, like the new
season, is bright and new and his actions are lively. The verbs
“scraped” and “flapped” show that every part of his body is in
action, moving to encourage the bandsmen to do their very best.
 The bandsmen respond,
 “…then bandsmen sitting in the green rotunda blew out their
cheeks and glared at the music.”
 The band sets the scene with “a little ‘flutey’ bit – very pretty!- a
little chain of bright drops” like an aural backdrop to the pageant,
filling the area with softness and rhythm.
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 The music echoes the actions of the ‘players’ in the pageant:
“Tum–tum–tum tiddle-um!...” and as if in a quadrille (dance for four),
“Two young girls in red came by and two young soldiers in blue met
them, and they laughed and paired and went off arm in arm.”
The music changes as a drama takes place:“…the ‘ermine toque’ and a
gentleman in grey met…”He rejects her. The band is sympathetic:
“Even the band seemed to know what she was feeling and played
more softly, played tenderly…”but the drum gets angry with the
gentleman, “The Brute! The Brute!” When the woman recovers her
composure,“…the band changed again and played more quickly, more
gaily than ever…” as if they were applauding her.
The band also gives life to an old couple who seem to be devoid of life.
“…the old couple…got up and marched away…”
“….the old man with whiskers hobbled along in time with the music….”
 Another change was coming. The band had taken a break but when
they began playing again, “…what they played was warm sunny, yet
there was just a faint chill – a something – what was it? – not
sadness…”
 It was sadness, possibly a sadness that would affect Miss Brill for
the rest of her life.“…She thought she heard something
crying…”She’ like the ‘ermine toque’ has been rejected. Unlike the
‘ermine toque’ she hasn’t the ability to toss her head and go in
another direction. She is devastated. Her fur has been put back into
its box. The music has definitely changed.
 Katherine Mansfield wrote:
 “All human relationships in this world are unsatisfactory; all
human beings are solitary. They are fundamentally cruel and
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indifferent to one another except, in the rare instances when they
love.”
 What do you think this means in terms of the stories you have read
so far?

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