Katherine Mansfield's Just Like Miss Brill

Have you ever caught yourself looking at people in the airport? It is interesting, just imagine what is going on in other people’s lives and put yourself in other people’s shoes. In a way, many people think they are like Miss Brill. People like to feel important and all have a role in the grand scheme of things. As Robert Peltier from an “Overview of ‘Miss Brill’” said, “Just like Miss Brill had an essential role and a grand play.” However, many people are sensitive to insults and should know that you cannot let insults get to you the way it got to Miss Brill. It is important to be able to ignore other’s rude comments. You can either let an insult get to you or break you down or you can brush it off and move forward. Plus many people are guilty …show more content…
Once “Miss Brill reacts to the pier, she delights in observing her surroundings” and listening to the band play: “oh, how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all!” But the reader senses that her happiness may be false, superficial impression. Although Miss Brill always “look[s] forward to the conversation,” she never dared to engage in one herself. “She is too afraid of allowing herself to be vulnerable” and of opening herself up to the potential of being hurt by others, which would only further diminish her already low self-esteem (Peltier). As she becomes more and more intrigued with immediate atmosphere, she reaches a state of delusion. Miss Brill begins to say that her life is a play, and that “they were all on the stage… they were acting.” Miss Brill’s fantasy functions to build up a sense of self-confidence, self-esteem and self-worth. “Her belief that ‘even she had a part [and] … she was part of the performance after all’ exemplifies her emotional insecurity. The phase ‘after all’ indicates that the thought that she might be significant as a person had never occurred to her before since she had never felt worthy of attention before. This remark only “reinforces Miss Brill’s felling” of being unworthy (Pletier). At this point Miss Brill externalizes her inner insecurity and vulnerability by feeling the scene ‘in quite a dashing way’ (Peltier). Miss Brill reaction to the boy’s rude statement solidifies the reader’s hypothesis that Miss Brill has a low sense of self-esteem. Her low self-esteem is probably the reason why Miss Brill struggles with interpersonal connection and relationships. Her vulnerability inhibits her from being able to open up to others because of her fear of being influenced or hurt by