Miss Brill or The Grave - Essay ExampleMiss Brill’s character clearly demonstrates her solitary nature. She is a foreigner in Paris, living by herself in a “little dark room†(Mansfield, V-8). She lives a life of unvaried, dull routine, visiting the park “at just the same time each week†(Mansfield, IV-1). She is obviously of modest means - her stole is shabby and a slice of honey cake is her Sunday treat. She is a teacher who is introverted even with her pupils and has “quite a queer, shy feeling at telling her English pupils how she spent her Sunday afternoons†(Mansfield, IV-1). The invalid gentleman she visits, sleeps through her newspaper readings and does not interact with her. Miss Brill is so isolated that she develops the habit of eavesdropping: “She had become really quite expert, --- at listening†to other peoples’ conversations (Mansfield, II-1). Miss Brill is portrayed as a lonely, friendless character whose self-perception is in conflict with reality.
