Miss Brill is a short story written by Katherine Mansfield, first published in November 1920 in Athenaeum, an English literary magazine and then in Mansfield's The Garden Party & Other Stories . The story takes place on a Sunday afternoon as an elderly woman enjoys her weekly visit to a French park. She enjoys watching others and witnessing their lives while the band plays in the gazebo. This story, written from the third-person omniscient point of view, is told with a stream-of-consciousness narrative, as Miss Brill is revealed through her thoughts about others. Through the use of symbolism and imagery, Mansfield shows the psychological complexity of her character's everyday experiences and the loneliness caused by the alternate reality she creates. Miss Brill, the protagonist of this story, is initially happy with her life and her situation. The reader can feel his excitement for the day ahead in the first line of the story. “Though it was so brilliantly beautiful – the blue sky dusted with gold and great patches of light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques – Miss Brill was glad she had decided on her fur” (Mansfield, par. 1). The fur represents everything Miss Brill has and doesn't have; she treasures it and calls it "Dear little thing" or "Little rascal". This little garment is the only thing in his life that he cares enough about to share in his Sunday ritual; for her it is more than an accessory. In fact, she is reassured and comforted by the presence of fur around her neck: “Miss Brill put her hand and touched her fur. […] It was nice to hear from him again” (par. 1). The fur also ironically symbolizes everything she doesn't have in her life: advent... in the center of the card... something seems to happen in this story, not far down, Mansfield makes Miss Brill go through different worlds, real and unreal. The author conveys the sadness and pain of such a life by exposing an ironically dull and crude character, a person that everyone might know but not understand. The wonderfully structured story is such a “beautiful harmony of irony and symbolism” (Thorpe 663) that the complexity of the main character could only be revealed through the use of imagery. When Miss Brill realizes that her life was a series of lies and acting, she retreats from the world that hurt her, an endless fall. Works Cited Mansfield, Katherine. "Miss Brill", The Garden Party and Other Stories. 1922. Print.Thorpe, Peter. "Teaching Miss Brill", College English, Vol.23. 1962. Network. April 8 2013.