Miss Brill

"Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield does a great job of characterization. While Mansfield does not directly characterize Brill, she does indirectly characterize Miss Brill through the actions of others. In the poem Miss Brill thinks of herself as an actress in a stage show. Mansfield writes "Even she had a part had a part and came every Sunday" (185). Miss Brill has a very high sense of herself. She often thinks of how old a person is, or how bad it would be to be a certain person. What's funny though, is that is exactly how she is. While earlier in the story she thinks of other people as "old," at the end, a couple of kids call her the old one. This is a great example of situational irony. The audience doesn't expect Miss Brill to be in fact a lonely old woman, we think instead she is simply listening to a band. Mansfield does a good job writing about Miss Brill and her peculiarities  Brill's fur coat is brought up throughout the story, and it shows how out of touch with reality she is. While the story was interesting, I thought it was also very sad. I found myself feeling sorry for Miss Brill at the end.