Miss Brill
... writes, “They were all on the stage. They weren’t only the audience, not only looking on; they were acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday” (51). Miss Brill is obvio ly a lonely woman who feels the need to belong. The narrator speaks of Miss Brill’s conception of the lives of the others who are regulars in the park. Other people sat on the benches and green chairs, but they were nearly always the same Sunday after Sunday, and--Miss Brill had often noticed--there was something funny about all of them. They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they sta d they looked as though they’d all just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards! (50-51) Miss Brill soon discovers that she is just like those people that she has been looking upon with pity. It is at this point in the story that Miss Brill experiences her painful epiphany. A pair of young lovers sit down on Miss Brill’s bench. She becomes excited for she now has a conversation to listen in on. The boy wants to kiss the girl but the girl resists. The boy asks if it is because of the “stupid old thing on the end over th e” (52), referring to Miss Brill. With that sentence uttered, Miss Brill’s trance is forever broken. She leaves the park to return home without buying her honeycake, without the joy she had when she first arrived. Here, the author makes the connectio between Miss Brill’s view of the other’s who frequent the park on Sundays. She writes, “ ...she...went into the little dark room--her room like a cupboard” (52). Miss Brill has come to the realization that she is just like the odd, silent, and old peo e that she had looked on with pity before this day. Miss Brill’s character is revealed indirectly. At first she seems different then the others who come to the park every Sunday, but later it is revealed that she is not. The reader discovers this right along with Miss Brill. Bit by bit, Miss Brill’s culiarities are brought into the light. The rest of the characters in “Miss Brill” would have to be described as flat. None of them are named, only a few have speaking roles and they all seem to flit in and then out of the story as Miss Bri...