Miss Brill

Mansfield’s opening scene is one of great natural beauty and enjoyment, expressed through Miss Brill’s description of the park and the weather, but there is an undercurrent of threat, exemplified by the atmosphere: “The air was motionless, but when you opened your mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip” (Paragraph 1). As she sits and listens to the band, Miss Brill feels a little sadness, which tempers her enjoyment of the beautiful day, the music, and people-watching in the park.

Miss Brill cheerfully attempts to overcome this sadness, to live in the moment and fully enjoy the day, yet clues to her lonely and bare existence creep into the narrative at several points. For example, Miss Brill exposes the emptiness of her own life when she expends so much emotion on the English woman she remembers discussing spectacles with her husband. Her preoccupation with the banalities other people’s lives, with the interpersonal relationships between strangers, suggests a lack of purpose and personal connection in her life.

This preoccupation with the intimate lives of the strangers continues as Miss Brill observes the woman in the ermine toque talking with the man in gray.