With Happiness Comes Disappointment

With Happiness Comes Disappointment

In "Miss Brill" Katherine Mansfield describes how a particle old lady spends a typical Sunday afternoon. Miss Brill was an old noisy and lonely lady. She likes to spend Sundays at the park listening to both the band and the conversations of others. Miss Brill was a happy lady. It only took a couple of people to make her sad and weep.

At first it Miss Brill seems like a noisy and lonesome old woman. She speaks to her fur as it were a person when she removes it from the storage box. She visited the park every Sunday so she could hear other people's conversations because she had no one to talk to her at home. On Sunday at the park two people sat next to Miss Brill on the bench. The narrator stated "They did not speak." "This was disappointing." (276) This statement suggests that Miss Brill was upset when she could not be noisy and listen in on others.

Although Miss Brill is lonely and noisy, she is still happy. Miss Brill enjoyed sitting on her special bench listening to both the music and conversations of others. This was an escape from her empty small house. The narrator stated "Miss Brill nearly laughed out loud when she realized she was an actress." (277)Miss Brill thought of herself as an actress performing with the band and other cast members on stage every Sunday. She thoroughly enjoyed this.

At the end of the story Miss Brill was very sad. A boy and girl sat on the bench next to her one Sunday. They said terrible things about Miss Brill. The acted as if they were annoyed because she sat there every Sunday listening in on their conversations. The boy stated "Why does she come here at all--who wants her? Why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home?" (278) The girl with him went on to say "It's her fu-fur which is so funny, It is exactly like a fried whiting." (278)They also went on to make many other cruel remarks toward Miss Brill. She was deeply hurt by these comments. She did not understand why the young couple was so mean. She was so sad she did not stop for her usual slice of honey-cake before she went home. She usually stopped to get a slice every Sunday. Schoenberg stated "As she puts away her Sunday fur, she imagines she hears something crying in the box." "So inauthentic is her life, made up of secondhand experiences and furs, that she is incapable of recognizing the origin of her tears, which of course, is her grief and humiliation." (Twentieth-Century Literature Criticism)

Miss Brill is a lonesome and noisy old lady. She lives alone and goes to the park every Sunday to escape her loneliness. She surrounds herself with the music playing and other people in the park. She enjoys listening to the conversations of others. She gets upset when someone boring sits next to her with nothing good to talk about. Miss Brill had a huge imagination.