"All the world's a stage?"

Shakespeare wrote, “All the world’s a stage.” Miss Brill, the title character in Katherine Mansfield’s short story, believes the same thing. In this story, the idea that she is an “actress” and thus plays a meaningful part in some grand drama symbolizes Miss Brill’s denial of reality and her retreat into fantasy. Miss Brill is a lonely, older woman who spends her Sunday afternoons at a park, people watching and listening to the band play. These outings are the highlight of her week, the most exciting part of her monotonous, lonely life. Mansfield’s short story is the description of one such Sunday afternoon, presented from Miss Brill’s point of view. Katherine Mansfield’ narrative technique, foils, and use of internal conflict make the following statement about Miss Brill: more than anything else, she desperately wants to belong.

Mansfield uses stream-of-consciousness narration in “Miss Brill,” meaning she tells her story by taking the reader through a record of Miss Brill’s thoughts. We understand what is happening to Miss Brill through her internal dialogue, through her responses to the people and events surrounding her. As Miss Brill takes her seat on a park bench, she remarks to herself that everything is “fascinating” and “so like a play!” Before she leaves her house, she takes out her fur, and we learn that she almost considers it a pet, because she carries on something of a mental conversation with it: “The rogue!”

Miss Brill’s narration tends to focus on odd details. The things she notices about her surroundings and the way she interprets what she sees reveals what kind of person she is. Because she comes to the park so often, Miss Brill recognizes many of the people. She observes every detail of their behavior and even relates what they do to the music the band is playing. When a dog walks across the park, Miss Brill notices that, too. She comes to the conclusion that everyone in the park, herself included, is part of a play. They all have a part to play, some role to fulfill. This “realization” so excites Miss Brill that it brings tears to her eyes. Clearly, the idea that she belongs and has a purpose is very important to her.

There are many foils, or characters who serve to develop Miss Brill’s character, in this story. Every person Miss Brill observes reveals something about her. At one point, Miss Brill watches an older woman wearing an ermine toque. “Now everything, her hair, her face, even her eyes, was the same color as the shabby ermine.” This faded woman tries to engage a gentleman in conversation, but he ignores her. For a moment, she is crushed, but then “raised her hand, as though she’d seen someone else, much nicer, just over there, and pattered away.” Miss Brill sympathizes with this woman, but refuses to see any similarities between herself (a lonely old woman wearing a fur) and the lady she is watching. This stubborn avoidance of reality shows that Miss Brill is unwilling to face the truth about herself.

Two other foils who influence Miss Brill are the young man and woman she dubs “the hero and heroine” of the play. They come and sit on her bench, so Miss Brill prepares to listen to their conversation. This interaction with the main characters in the so-called play is the climax of her afternoon. However, the “hero” looks at Miss Brill and says “…that old stupid thing at the end there? Why does she come here at all – who wants her? Why doesn’t she keep her silly old mug at home?” Crushed, Miss Brill makes her way home, neglecting to stop at the baker’s and buy her customary treat. The “hero’s” realistic appraisal of her is devastating, yet she refuses to acknowledge its legitimacy.

Throughout “Miss Brill,” the internal conflict between reality and fantasy is apparent. Miss Brill persuades herself that she has a meaningful part in some sort of play, as the narration style and foils makes quite clear. Yet, it is just as clear that she can’t keep reality, in the form of other people, from harshly intruding. She sees another lonely old woman, similar to herself, and her imagined hero and heroine reject her. Her fantastical construct can’t exclude reality, so in the end, she goes home and shuts her fur back into its box, imagining she can hear it crying. Miss Brill can’t suppress reality, though she tries to do so.

The narration, the foils, and the conflict describe Miss Brill’s fantasy. The purpose of this fantasy is to make her feel needed, important, and maybe even loved. Her greatest desire is to belong to some group, to escape the loneliness of the rest of her life. She wishes that if she didn’t go to the park one week, someone there would notice, and miss her. She is a character desperately searching for companionship, even though her life is one of unrelieved alienation.