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    Miss Brill

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    hill3yy
    The document analyzes how Katherine Mansfield uses point of view (POV) to develop themes in her short story "Miss Brill". It discusses how the omniscient narrator establishes the setting, tone, and observes Miss Brill's actions and emotions closely. This allows the reader to see that Miss Brill views her life as if she is an "actress" playing a role. By the end, when Miss Brill faces rejection, the line between reality and her fictional world is blurred. The objective narration was needed to tell Miss Brill's story since she could no longer distinguish between reality and her dreams. The narrative perspective highlights the theme that life is like a play with actors, with joy that can fade when faced with

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    Miss Brill

    Uploaded by

    hill3yy
    1K views2 pages
    The document analyzes how Katherine Mansfield uses point of view (POV) to develop themes in her short story "Miss Brill". It discusses how the omniscient narrator establishes the setting, tone, and observes Miss Brill's actions and emotions closely. This allows the reader to see that Miss Brill views her life as if she is an "actress" playing a role. By the end, when Miss Brill faces rejection, the line between reality and her fictional world is blurred. The objective narration was needed to tell Miss Brill's story since she could no longer distinguish between reality and her dreams. The narrative perspective highlights the theme that life is like a play with actors, with joy that can fade when faced with

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    Hillary Du's in class essay on Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield.

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    The document analyzes how Katherine Mansfield uses point of view (POV) to develop themes in her short story "Miss Brill". It discusses how the omniscient narrator establishes the setting, tone, and observes Miss Brill's actions and emotions closely. This allows the reader to see that Miss Brill views her life as if she is an "actress" playing a role. By the end, when Miss Brill faces rejection, the line between reality and her fictional world is blurred. The objective narration was needed to tell Miss Brill's story since she could no longer distinguish between reality and her dreams. The narrative perspective highlights the theme that life is like a play with actors, with joy that can fade when faced with

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views2 pages

    Miss Brill

    Uploaded by

    hill3yy
    The document analyzes how Katherine Mansfield uses point of view (POV) to develop themes in her short story "Miss Brill". It discusses how the omniscient narrator establishes the setting, tone, and observes Miss Brill's actions and emotions closely. This allows the reader to see that Miss Brill views her life as if she is an "actress" playing a role. By the end, when Miss Brill faces rejection, the line between reality and her fictional world is blurred. The objective narration was needed to tell Miss Brill's story since she could no longer distinguish between reality and her dreams. The narrative perspective highlights the theme that life is like a play with actors, with joy that can fade when faced with

    Copyright:

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    Hillary Du

    Mr. Gallagher

    AP English Literature

    How does Katherine Mansfield use POV to develop theme?

    Oftentimes the narrator of a story goes completely unnoticed or neglected. What

    many do not pay attention to is that a narrator sets up everything from scenery to plot to

    tone. In Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield the reader can gain an insightful look thrgouh

    a selective omniscient point of view. From there the reader can then arrive at the theme of

    life being like a play set with a narrator and its actors.

    Miss Brill starts out with an objective description of the story's setting. The

    narrator captures Miss Brill's childish and overly excited tone. Even from the beginning

    we can see that the narrator, not Miss Brill herself, but is someone that observes her with

    extreme scrutiny. Her every emotion is presented, but even mocked in a way because

    Miss Brill is a grown woman. Mansfield manipulated punctuation so as to first give Miss

    Brill a younger personality, such as when she exclaims "Very pretty!" The narrator

    develops her innocently enough to demonstrate that Miss Brill is in fact an actress.

    Miss Brill enjoyed admiring others, "little children...swooping and laughing." Her

    interest demonstrates her yearn to fit in with society. Miss Brill is neither accepted by the

    old or the young and is forced to lead a life where her everyday life is a struggle for self-

    definition and acceptance. The narrator observes her in the act of observing others and

    acts as a representation of how the town thinks her to be. The narrative plays a double

    role because the narrator is able to tell the story from Miss Brill's perspective and as a

    bystander too.
    The story then goes to Miss Brill thinking that her pastime was like watching "a

    play." She even admits that she has "been an actress for a long time." As general

    knowledge, the reader can derive that Miss Brill's role in this "play" is fake. Her passive,

    yet still impossibly happy, reaction towards rejection questions reality. The narrator

    creates a fine line between fiction and reality when he/she speaks about the scenery as

    opposed to the scenes Miss Brill is actively "acting" in. Miss Brill has resorted to this

    fake reality of hers because all humans want to be accepted by our peers. The condition

    lies in our hearts. An objective narrative is needed because Miss Brill could not really tell

    from reality and dream. Everything seems "delight[ful]" to her.

    Miss Brill, through her innocent depiction of a clearly selective society,

    eventually loses faith in its goodness. "Something so beautiful" then becomes difficult to

    cope with as she listens in on criticism directed towards her - "that stupid old thing." The

    limelight on the wonderful youth and people that she once enjoyed suddenly fades.

    Mansfield includes a big break between the ending dialogue and conclusion. The tone

    becomes solemn, sympathetic even. Miss Brill becomes speechless and she "put[s] the

    lid" on her naïve character. The narrator ends with a dramatic whisper, concluding in

    observations that Miss Brill would not have noted in such detail. The "play" ends quietly

    and the narration draws the curtains on Miss Brill's now "dark little...cupboard." Life is

    not always an enjoyable play. It eventually comes back to reality.

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