Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

The story “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield provides an opportunity to examine many elements of fiction. The story is set in an unnamed French town in which the “Jardins Publiques” (125), or Public Gardens, are a central part of the town. Miss Brill is an unmarried, middle-aged woman who often comes to the gardens on Sunday afternoons to listen to the band play. While at the park, she observes many people, including a woman in an ermine toque in whom particular interest is taken (127), both by the narrator and Miss Brill herself. Miss Brill also owns a red eiderdown coat, which she treasures dearly, giving it human-like qualities and calling it a “little rogue” (125). Near the end of the story, however, Miss Brill and her eiderdown coat …show more content…
After reading the story, I contemplated the role of the lady with the ermine toque in the story, as both the narrator and Miss Brill place particular emphasis on her. I also speculated the reason Miss Brill took the insult to her coat so personally, leaving the park immediately and putting the coat away quickly when she returned home (129). I eventually came to the conclusion that the lady with the ermine toque helps to foil Miss Brill’s character, making the insults from the young couple carry more weight and stand out more, while the eiderdown coat represents Miss Brill’s dreams and hopes for the future, helping to explain her reaction to said insults. Later on, I will discuss alternative explanations and arguments concerning the representation of the eiderdown coat and the role of the lady with the ermine toque, but none can be supported with as much evidence or carry as much weight as the two explanations …show more content…
One alternate explanation as to what the coat symbolizes is that the coat represents Miss Brill’s life. The coat, which was once new and fresh, but is now rather ragged and old, needing to be mended in places with sealing wax (125), can compare to Miss Brill’s own life, as she was once young, with many opportunities available to her, but is now older with fewer prospects. Although this argument is a viable one, the story does not highlight much about Miss Brill’s earlier life other than the fact she is unmarried. Because we are not provided with any earlier experiences, we are unable to base her current life situation off of any previous ones. We do not know if Miss Brill’s current life situation is better or worse than anything she experienced before the story, so we are unable to compare the coat to her life and previous life experiences. Because of this, the only reasonable explanation for what the coat symbolizes is that the eiderdown coat is an extension of Miss Brill, representing her hopes and dreams for the