In the essay "Miss Brill's Fragile Fantasy," we saw how one writer developed a thoughtful critical analysis of the title character in Katherine Mansfield's short story "Miss Brill." The following essay, "Poor, Pitiful Miss Brill," offers a somewhat different perspective on the same character.
Carefully compare and contrast these two critical essays in terms of organization, coherence, supporting evidence, and logical development. Then decide whether "Poor, Pitiful Miss Brill" deserves to be placed in the category of "How Not to Write a Critical Essay."
Poor, Pitiful Miss Brill
Miss Brill is pitiful. In her story "Miss Brill," Katherine Mansfield has given us a character we're all familiar with: a person who wraps herself in fantasies to escape from the ugly truths of reality. And the reality of Miss Brill's life is that she's old, ugly, scared, and foolish. A character like that deserves to be pitied.
Miss Brill is old and ugly. Because the story is told from her point of view, we never get a chance to see just how old and ugly she is. However, there are plenty of clues in the story to help us figure out that she is probably very old and very ugly. According to the dictionary, the word brill refers to a kind of flatfish. Miss Brill imagines that her world is "brilliantly fine," but she herself doesn't appear to be very brilliant. Just as her moth-eaten fur piece is described as looking like a "fried whiting," Miss Brill herself (who identifies so closely with the fur piece) probably bears a strong resemblance to a fish. Also, she is a spinster. She is a school teacher (a notoriously ugly profession--the refuge of spinsters). She is described once as "that stupid old thing." Her only acquaintance seems to be a sick old man who goes to sleep when she visits him and who might as well be dead. Nobody in the park talks to Miss Brill. People are probably afraid that her ugliness will rub off on them. Really, how pitiful can you get!
Miss Brill is scared. We don't know what has made her so scared (maybe she is fearful because she's a foreigner, or perhaps she had an unfortunate childhood experience), but we do know that she is afraid of becoming involved with other people. She plays it safe. The only people she "communicates" with are schoolchildren (and even with them she feels "queer, shy" when it comes to relating a personal experience) and the old guy in the garden. At the park she involves herself with others only in her addled imagination. Perhaps somebody blew smoke into her face once too often and now she prefers to stay on the sidelines and watch other people get hurt. This is a sad state of affairs. Someone should do Miss Brill a favor and tie that ratty-looking fur piece into a hangman's noose.
Miss Brill is foolish. She treats her fur as if it were a pet. She notices the other old people on the benches and doesn't even suspect that she is one of those people who "come from dark little rooms." She looks at everybody as if they were wearing costumes and imagines that everybody in the park is suddenly going to leap up, dancing and singing, as if they were in the cast of Glee. Her biggest treat in life is finding an almond in her honey cake! Sad to say, but she probably has Alzheimer's disease.
It's not hard to feel sorry for Miss Brill, just as it's not hard to feel sorry for anybody who is old, scared, ugly, lonely, senile, and foolish. Maybe those two kids did her a favor by bringing her back into reality. We all have to face up to the truth some time. And the truth is, Miss Brill is pitiful.
