Sample Essay On What Truth About Aging Is Revealed In The Story Miss Brill By Katherine Mansfield

In the story “Miss Brill’ written by Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill, a middle-aged, lonely old woman but she does not wish to be thought of like old and lonely. She refuses to accept the fact of her situation so she pretends that she is an actress and removes herself from her situation. She passes the time going to the park and listening to the conversations of other people and listening to the band play. She observes and criticizes others but does not see her own self. Whenever she begins to see herself as old she brushes that thought away. She does not allow herself to think these thoughts because then it would be a confirmation that she is old and lonely. Miss Brill, made every effort to remove herself from her situation. She pretends to create happiness in everything. Her usual Sunday evening visits in the park makes her think that she is still capable of living a full life and that she is still useful and important. The writer tells the story from the third person point of view in order to allow the narrator to listen to the thoughts of Miss Brill. She constantly changes her mind when she begins to realize that she is lonely and old. Mansfield carefully and intricately uses situations to bring out the theme of old age in the story.
On this Sunday evening, she decides to go to the park and wear her fur coat. The coat is as old as she is and is obviously in need of repairs. It is old and delicate as its owner and should be handled with care. It is obvious that this coat has been in her possession for many years. As she was removing it from the box, she realizes that it needs some repairing. The little eyes were dim, and she had to rub it to put some light back into it. Miss Brill was not admitting that her eyes were losing focus due to old age. She perhaps was unable to see very well when she opened the box and in order not to face reality she begins to imagine hearing a small voice asking what was happening to it. At that point, she felt so lonely, and the loneliness stirred in her breast, and she wanted to put it in her lap and stroke it. The nose was not as firm as it once was, representational of her frail body, but she refuses to think so. When she feels a tingling in her hands she hastily brushes it off saying that it was probably due to too much walking in the park. The writer uses this episode to bring out her age, but Miss Brill counters this by refusing to accept the tingling in her hand as the onset of old age and possibly the symptom of an illness that accompanies old age.
In the park, she frantically combs the area looking for young couples whose conversation she could listen to and fantasizes about her age but she only sees an old woman and a man sitting on a bench and noticed that they were not talking. She watches the man and woman sitting in the park and she ignores the similarity between herself and the woman by inventing a conversation. She describes a woman’s coat, her hair, her face and eyes yet she refuses to admit that her appearance resembles that of the woman. She describes many of the other persons present at the concert and notices that they seem odd and silent: nearly all of them are old. She remarked that they all seem to come from a dark cupboard-like room but does not think that her apartment is the same as theirs. Her delusional state allows her to distance herself from them.
The woman in the ermine toque, she had bought it when her hair was yellow. None of this was different from her appearance but Miss Brill refuses to make that link with the old coat she was also wearing. She refuses to categorize herself with the old people in the park and seek out the younger ones, in whose conversation she would listen and lose herself. The woman in the ermine toque was snubbed by the gentleman whom she was obviously happy to see. It seemed she was being slighted because she was old. Although she smiled she was disappointed, and the band, sensing the disappointment in her, played more softly. The woman, like herself, was determined to find companionship and kept looking. Miss Brill thought of herself as one of the performers and wondered if she did not turn up in the park one Sunday if anyone would miss her. She consoled herself that she would surely be missed and made sure to leave her house every Sunday at the same time so she could arrive on time to hear the band play.
Seeing herself as an actress, she is not prepared for the insult that is meted out to her by a boy. Just as she was about to settle in and listen to their conversation the boy calls her old and stupid. The girl referred to her coat as a dead bird, a ‘fried whiting’. This is indicative of old age and possible death. She suddenly stopped pretending and realizes that the acting was to no avail. Her vain attempt at hiding behind the acting was revealed. She realized how cruel people could be especially the young who are intolerant of the aged. She was devastated at the thought of not being needed.
Old age is debilitating, both physically and mentally. The old is often abandoned by family and sometimes put in a rest home to live out the rest of their ‘useless’ lives. It is a time of loneliness, and to combat this loneliness they spend the time reminiscing about their past lives. This loneliness acts as a time of healing and therapy for them. Memory here serves as a vehicle that allows them to regain a sense of dignity and makes them feel like worthwhile human beings. Miss Brill sees herself as one of those younger persons who were once appreciated for her contribution to society and so she hangs on to that until it was shattered by someone who has no tolerance for age and the aged.