Katherine Mansfields Miss Brill - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages She fancies that it is speaking to her and accusing her of not having given it enough time and consideration as if it were a living thing snapping its eyes at her and biting its tail near her ear. She sits on her usual bench and waits expectantly to listen in on the conversations of those seated near her. She mentally regurgitates conversations that she has listened in on during her previous visits. As she watches the others sitting on the benches and chairs in the park she mentally puts them in the category of “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!” Miss Brill’s description of the people in the park is colored by the fantasies she weaves about their characters as the “grave” peasant women or the “cold, pale nun” and the “ermine toque”. She even imagines the conversations they are having and fancies that the band plays as if sensing the moods she imagines in the people she sees around her. Miss Brill imagines herself to be part of a play and the others around her to be the other characters. She conceives of the sky as a painted backdrop to the stage on which the play is being performed. She believes that all the people at the park are both the audience and the actors and she too is a part of the play which to her mind explains why she was so particular about the time she started from home every Sunday afternoon so as not to be late to play her part. ...Download file to see next pagesRead more