Miss Brill

Miss Brill's weekly routine of people watching reveals a few things...

Weekly Routine

• She was for the most part, alone.
• Not much changed weekly, implying a stagnant state
• She is used to viewing everyone- including herself- as an actor in a play.

I think Miss Brill has a fantasy view of being in a "play" to distract herself from the reality of her loneliness

She observes, "the old people sat on a bench, still as statues. Never mind, there was always the crowds to watch."

In the process of passively observing, she became one of the very people she got bored of watching.

Miss Brill employs deflection to other's lives to distract from the disappointments in her life- much like the young girl pretended to see someone else after she was rebuffed by a gentleman

"They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even–even cupboards!"

At the end, Miss Brill realized that her existence wasn't as important as she believed- evidenced in her reference to her "cupboard" of a room.

Mansfield addresses one of the most important aspects of the human condition- the concern about our value and purpose as people

Like Miss Brill, I believe we all come to a point in our lives where we question our place in the world and our lives thus far.

However, our value will always be misplaced if we only look at our own importance. Personally, in order for my life to have any meaning, my purpose is not found in myself, but in God.