Miss Brill: The Importance of The Ermine Toque

Image courtesy of Suzseams

Who is the Ermine Toque?

A Random Girl in the Park

The story does not go into details about the background of the Ermine Toque (so called because she was wearing an ermine toque hat pictured above). One possibility is she is simply a random park visitor, who like everyone else, is enjoying the park festivities. This, however, is literature, and random simply does not exist. Based on the fact that she has almost an entire paragraph dedicated to her interaction with the "gentleman in grey" means that next to Miss Brill she is probably the most important character in the short story.

Narrative Technique: Miss Brill

Narrative Technique Miss Brill

The Narrative Technique used by Katherine Mansfield is known as a stream of consciousness, where the narrator has access to the thoughts of  the character, and is able to see and experience the world, in exactly the same manner the character does. Katherine Mansfield's use of this narrative technique is particularly unique, as Miss Brill's thoughts and opinions alone do not present an accurate picture of who she is, and how the world sees her. The narrative is aided by the use of other devices such as symbols, personification, and juxtaposition of characters. Her fox fur communicates her confusion about her emotional state, and her refusal to come to terms with it. She identifies with the fox fur only as far as she believes that it represents her importance to those around her. The  fox fur is the only thing that speaks in the first person (as well as the first time we see Miss Brill use the first person is while interacting with the fur), and is the first device in the narrative that gives us the idea that Miss Brill may not be as comfortable with herself as her stream of thoughts suggest.

Symbolism: Miss Brill

Symbols found in Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill"

Fox

Easily one of her most treasured items in her wardrobe, the fox symbolizes both Miss Brill's physical and mental states. The fox is said to be old, dusty, and badly in need of a "good brush". It is as if like the old people in the park (and as we later learn Miss Brill herself), it had been kept away in a cupboard. Beyond her physical state, the fox also represents her metal state. The fox is personified to reflect her disconnection from her emotions. The fox's eyes for example seem to ask "What is happening to me?", and like an animal lacking self awareness it "bites its own tail". We later learn that these feelings of despair are actually Miss Brill's, as she struggles with identifying and confronting her pitiful state. Although she is clearly hurt from the incident involving the young couple, she refuses to acknowledge it,and instead believes she "heard something crying". She is unable to truly accept her status in life, and therefore projects all her negative emotions onto the fox fur.

Character Analysis: Miss Brill

Piecing together the main character Miss Brill

Miss Brill

While we are never given a direct description of Miss Brill, we are able to infer certain characteristics about her, based on clues left by the omniscient narrator. Miss Brill may have been an older woman with strange mannerisms, something which she seems to not realize. She describes fellow visitors to the park as looking "as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even- even cupboards", and we later learn that Miss Brill is actually just like them as her room is also described as being "like a cupboard". She fails to see the similarities, however, because she struggles with confronting her own emotions and is very disconnected from reality. For example she wears a fox fur to the park that day, though the narrator hints that the occasion does not call for it. The fur evokes her disconnected existence by actually reflecting her true emotions with its "sad little eyes". The music has the same effect, with Miss Brill believing herself to have some special connection to the band playing in the park. She struggles with interpreting the effect the music has on her, as she refuses to believe that she is being overcome with sadness.

Summary: Miss Brill

Summary of the short story, Miss Brill

Summary of Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill"

Miss Brill is a solitary woman who spends her Sunday in a park, relating in vivid details the happenings around her. She is dressed in a fox fur, though the weather does not call for it, as she believes it to be representative of her high status. She admires the music around her, thinking it to be reflective of her experiences. An old couple is seated on her bench, and she is dissatisfied that they are not talking since she enjoys eavesdropping on their conversation. Her attention switches to others in the park, the children, a beggar, all who she describes as looking strange. She notices a young girl trying desperately to gain a man's attention but fails. Though the girl seems happy and quickly moves on, Miss Brill instead concentrates on the sad music in the background, which she believes to be more in tune with the girl's emotions.  Miss Brill believes she has an epiphany, that she and everyone one else around her is a part of a production where she is a very important character. She believes herself to be so key to this imaginary production, that her absence would quickly be noticed. The music resumes and she is moved by a change in tune she is not able to comprehend. She is joined by a young couple who she marks as the stars of her production. The young couple speaks ill of her, and Miss Brill of course overhears. She leaves the park, skipping her usual routine of going to the bakery, and instead heads straight home. As she gets in, she puts away her fur, and while doing so she hears crying.