Miss Brill

Miss Brill’s imagination allows her to fight off alienation and loneliness as she seeks beauty, connection, and a sense of belonging and value in the world. For example, she turns her old fur necklet into a luxurious companion, a “rogue” to share adventures and conversation with. By personifying the necklet, imbuing it with life and personality, she ensures herself one friend that will not reject or ridicule her. This personification is just one example of Miss Brill’s lively imagination, which is apparent in the story’s rich, vivid imagery. She transforms her Sundays in the park into escapades in which she connects with others by eavesdropping on their conversations, imagining their inner workings and their relationships with others, and casting them in roles in her life, just as she casts the young couple as a hero and heroine.

While she uses her imagination to find connection and purpose, Miss Brill also uses her inventiveness to hold reality at a distance. She is not blind to her heavy heart. She chooses to focus on positivity—the band conductor’s new coat, the pretty music, the laughing children—but negative details do not escape her notice. For example, she notes the chill in the air. Rather than ponder how this chilliness reflects her repressed melancholy—foreshadowing the story’s somber ending—she instead compares it to a glass of ice water, something pleasant and refreshing. At the end of the story, when she puts the fox fur necklet away and imagines something crying, she is projecting her emotions onto the necklet, assigning it her heartbreak to distance herself from her pain.

Miss Brill’s love for the natural beauty of the park, her appreciation for music, and her keen observations of strangers fuel her imagination and allow her to feel a sense of belonging. But the world she envisions is steeped in fantasy, which shields her from her loneliness and isolation even as it allows her to find purpose and connection.