Loneliness In Katherine Mansfield's Miss Brill

How do you spend your Sunday afternoons? Most people spend it with family and friends. Others as a spiritual day or even sports day. However you spend it, it is usually around the most important people in your life. However, in “Miss Brill” we find out her Sundays are spent at the park. She spends them alone because she lives in solitude. The time she spends at the park is a twisted reality of what she really is seeing. Not having companions with whom to spend her Sunday afternoons lead to Miss Brill making up scenarios and ideas about the people around her. She is able to feel better about herself when speaking and assuming things for others. This is really a mask to cover the loneliness she is feeling inside. In “Miss Brill” by Katherine
Although her fur scarf is used as a companion it is also used to represent herself. In the beginning of the story, the scarf coming out of its box with sad eyes compares to Miss Brill going out to the park and being sad internally. “What has been happening to me (Charters, 583)?,” says the scarf. This is also Miss Brills wondering how she got to where she is now in life. She wondered how she became so displeased with her life. The last example of the scarf is in the last sentence of the story. Miss Brill goes to put away her fur scarf after being ridiculed. When she put the scarf away she thought she heard something crying. When that is first read, one might think of it as a quick joke because it became personified. However, the crying was in fact symbolizing Miss Brill, who was feeling desolate when what she valued was torn down. The band that plays throughout the story was also used as symbolism. On page 583, Miss Brill thinks the band sounds louder and happier because more people are out that Sunday. She was happier to see that more people were out in the garden and she would not be as lonely that day. She was able to have the music represent her without having to actually say what she was