Miss Brill

I found this story extremely depressing, even more than Bartleby. Katherine Mansfield develops great amounts of pathos throughout Miss Brill with her character of Miss Brill, the lonely old woman whose highlight of the week consists of affirming her lovely fur and strolling down the street in order to people-watch and listen in on other's' conversations. This is probably one of my worst fears, growing old and being left all alone. Miss Brill even begins to speak to her little fur because of the lack of human interaction she has. Her lack of companionship and loneliness is further illustrated in her necessity to participate in the lives of others walking along the streets. She overhears conversations and yearns to participate, "No, nothing would please her. 'They'll always be sliding down my nose!' Miss Brill had wanted to shake her." Her excitement to "participate" in other people's lives is a further indication of desperation for human interaction because she doesn't actually participate, she watches and listens and pretends that other people's lives pertain to her own. The saddest fact is that she absolutely loves her routine of people-watching and genuinely seems to care about each of them. "Oh, how fascinating it was! How she enjoyed it! How she loved sitting here, watching it all!"