Miss Brill

Miss Brill is a middle aged British woman, currently living in Paris and working as an English teacher there. No explanation as to her past is given, leaving it to the readers to draw their own conclusions. She sees herself as a normal woman living an ordinary life, but as it soon becomes apparent to the reader she is starving for warmth and companionship. She attempts to experience life through the experiences of total strangers, …

…seeing herself in a new light, she foregoes her usual Sunday slice of honeycake, which she thinks of as “a tiny present- a surprise” intentionally. Once back in her little “box-like” apartment, she puts her beloved fur back in the box –which could symbolise locking her old life away. The crying she then pretends to hear would only show how much she enjoyed living in her old unreal life, which she now has to abandon.