On the Tragedy of Miss Brill in Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill From the Perspective of Contrast

Xu Xiaojuan

【Abstract】Miss Brill is a well-known short story of the English writer Katherine Mansfield who is adept in the description of ones interior monologue and analyzing the mental world of human being. Through contrasts between Miss Brills recalls of her past and the present world， between her good mood from the very beginning to the very end and bad mood in the end， and between the aging Miss Brill and the young lovers， this paper shows the loneliness， disillusionment and tragedy of Miss Brill.

【Key words】Miss Brill； Contrast； Loneliness； Tragedy； Disillusionment

1. Introduction

Miss Brill， though less than 2，000 words in total， has been analyzed broadly from different aspects， for example， the point of view， structure， the art of defamiliarization in language， stylistic analysis， modernism， stream of consciousness， narrative strategy， and writing style， etc. . However， this paper aims to focus on the tragedy of Miss Brill from the angle of contrast.

2. Three Contrasts

2.1 Contrast between good mood and bad one

It seems that everything is great and perfect all through this short story， which can be seen from the frequent use of the word “smile”（4 times） and several other words representing happiness， such as “brilliantly” “fine”， “glad”， “sweet”， “gayer”， “l(fā)aughed”， “pleased”， “delighted”， “brightly”， “gaily”， “fascinating”， “enjoyed”， “l(fā)aughing”. All the way long， we （the readers） are following the inner monologue of Miss Brill， changing from different places together with her， and hence we can form a gay picture in the eye of Miss Brill. Actually， Katherine purposely uses these pleasant words to present us a striking contrast between the very good mood of Miss Brill from the very beginning to the very end of this short story and the extremely bad mood in the last paragraph. The story goes with everything so enjoyable to all of us and to Miss Brill， but then turns suddenly to the wondrously unhappy mood. The contrast between these two totally different moods strikes us the most deeply. Whats more， Katherine deliberately employs “something” as the subject of “crying”， instead of saying directly that Miss Brill is crying due to her broken heart. It indeed is an irony of Miss Brill for her not admitting the reality and her indulging in imagination.

2.2 Contrast between the recall of her past and the present world

Sitting alone in the park on a regular Sunday afternoon， Miss Brill， a lonely old girl， always listens to other peoples conversation and activities to relieve her loneliness. She even regards herself as an expert on eavesdropping， which to some extent implies that Miss Brill quite enjoys this way of living a life. Though short this story is， Miss Brill recalls many times of her past life. For example， at the very beginning， Katherine unrolls the story with Miss Brills great love of her fur which actually is very old from others opinion. But Miss Brill does not think so for her memory of the fur still stops at the beauty and freshness of the fur. Besides， she recalls last Sundays couple， an Englishman and his complaining wife， which reveals her eager for a companionship. She also recalls that she used to “read the newspaper four afternoons a week while he （the old invalid gentleman） slept in the garden. （Mansfield， 1978）” and then thinks of her life being an actress for a long time. However， what Miss Brill does will not resolve her problem fundamentally； it actually disturbs her ability of thinking as she allows herself to indulge in her illusion. Though old girl Miss Brill is， she is still maintaining an immature state of mind.

Everything seems fantastic， however， the conversation between the young lovers extremely changes the spiritual world of Miss Brill， which brings Miss Brill back to the reality—though a very hard fact for her to accept and incurring her crying at length. It is at this very moment that the illusion of Miss Brill is destroyed after the indifferent scorn from the young lover. The only way she can do now is to face the reality since she already realizes what she always does is but illusion and imagination which is really not very helpful to cure her loneliness basically. She has to accept the fact that she is not young any more though it is hard for her to admit as the illusion is what makes up her life for quite a long time. And now that the only thing that supports her spiritually is destroyed by reality， there are no other options to choose but to face the present world.

This contrast between the recall of Miss Brills past and the present world presents us the picture from where Miss Brill is indulged in her illusion to where the illusion is destroyed and hence forms a vivid illusion-disillusion picture. From the contrast between these two， we can see that the tragedy of Miss Brill is because she always lives her life from the sidelines， devoid of subject consciousness. Her disillusionment finally makes she understand that she is the protagonist of her life instead of a costar. Her obsession with observing others way of living actually divorces her from reality.

2.3 Contrast between the aging Miss Brill and the young couple

The conversation between the young lovers seems indifferently destroys the peaceful life of Miss Brill， but actually it is not. The way Miss Brill shows to us how happy she is is but an illusion， way far from reality. Her inner world is not peaceful but very painful in fact for she has no companion and no subject consciousness. The smile she wears we cannot say it is fake to us but a fake to herself for in the end she cheats herself without knowing it， which is a tragedy for her. Even though the young couple does not show up at that time， there will be some other young ones that are bold and straight enough to speak the truth. The contrast that Katherine employs between the aging Miss Brill and the young lovers strikes us heavily. What Miss Brill is afraid of， in the end， appears without any preparation. It is so sudden that she starts to cry. However， she is still not willing to accept the reality as we can see from the way she describes the crying—“But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying. （Mansfield， 1978）” Perhaps the word “something” makes her easier to accept after the sudden collapse.

3. Conclusion

There is no doubt that Miss Brill is an old girl full of tragedy， loneliness and illusion. The way she keeps living is self-deceiving for she is actually living in her inner world but not the real world. She even successfully betrays herself that one day she will get back to the stage and attract attention from others. However， the young lovers indifferently rude conversation draws Miss Brill back to reality and hence the illusion she creates is destroyed. She realizes that she has to accept reality instead of living in her own world full of self-deception. She is the creator of her own tragedy and hence she will be the one to unlock it. Though the illusion is destroyed， she still suffers a lot during the experience from illusion to disillusion， which is a painful experience one must go through to gain the mature state of mind.

References：

[1]Mansfield，K.The Garden Party[M].New York：Penguin Books，1978.