symbolic meaning in Miss Brill

Literary analysis: Symbolism in Miss Brill, by Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield accomplishes an incredible drama with detailed characterization in Miss Brill, a story only four pages long. As a gem cutter creates innumerable facets to increase the brilliance of a small diamond or other precious stone, Mansfield does something similar: the simplest of plots is enriched with symbolism, word selection and limited omniscient point of view, and emerges as a masterwork.

The story's title provides an example of the author's ingenuity and attention to detail. We immediately realize that the central character is a lonely spinster, probably an elderly Englishwoman, living in a resort area of France near the seashore, earning enough to support herself by tutoring English children and reading the newspapers to an old invalid whose ability to hear and comprehend are questionable.

We sense her mood and excitement in her opening-line description of the weather and the setting. "Although it was so brilliantly fine - the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques - Miss Brill was glad that she had decided on her fur."

The story was written in the early 1920s. Youthful readers may have to be reminded that this was a time when there was no stigma attached to wearing the fur of animals and that fur stoles of the period often combined taxidermy with the art of the furrier. It was common to see stoles made into a loop with the animal's mouth equipped with a snap device that would fasten to the tail.

The fur piece is treasured by Miss Brill, who addresses it as "Dear little thing" and "Little rogue." We are told how "She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed life back into the dim little eyes."

Gradually the furpiece comes to be a symbol of its owner. Both are of advanced age and a little the worse for wear. ". . .the nose, which was of some black composition, wasn't at all firm. It must have had a knock, somehow. Never mind - a little dab of black sealing -wax when the time came - when it was absolutely necessary."

Miss Brill's given name is never mentioned since she has no friends who would use it. However, at the beginning of the story she is blissfully happy with her life and situation. She has compensated for her isolation by sitting in on the lives of other people and casting herself as a significant character in the panoramic, multi-charactered drama of life.