Miss Brill

Themes in Miss Brill:

Loneliness Isolation/alienation The unfair way in which unmarried women are treated by society.

Miss Brill is alienated from the rest of society.

In the story, we are shown a day in the life of Miss Brill when she attends her weekly, Sunday ‘viewing’ session at the local park. Here we see her take great joy in listening to other’s conversations

“She had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute while they talked round her”,

and passing judgements on all the people she observes.

‘there was something funny about nearly all of them’.

However, Miss Brill does not participate in this scene. She is alone whilst everybody else around her is in couples or with friends. She is different from all the other people in the park even despite when she at one point, believes they all share in the common experience of being in a play. ‘

They were all on the stage …. Even she had a part and came every Sunday. No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there’

Why is she Alienated?

Why does she not belong?

It depends on how you look at the story.

Today we are going to look at it from a … Feminist perspective.