Miss Brill

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m176/niascissorhands/Vintage%20Pictures/WL433.jpg
[photo used for educational purposes only]

The photo (left) is my mental image of Miss Brill in Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" story. I picture the character of Miss Brill as resembling the woman on the right side of the photo. She's a young, 1920's flapper who loves to stroll the streets, enjoys conversing with strangers, and revels at people watching. Miss Brill is a lonely young woman whose fur is her only true companion. She gives this raggedy, worn, dead animal humanistic qualities. Miss Brill is a loner but longs to become an invisible part of the lives of the people she watches. The author, Katherine Mansfield portrays Miss Brill as being an expert "at listening as though she didn't listen, at sitting in other people's lives just for a minute...".