（還是一次課程作業(yè)，而且是英文的。分享給大家）

The Magic of being Limited

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Introduction

In Matherine Mansfield’s 1920 story “Miss Brill”, Miss Brill takes a stroke at Jardins Publiques on Sunday afternoon. She observes people around her with interest and fascinations about how the people are connected and accompanied by each other, the band playing as the background music. The story ends upsettingly when a young couple intrudes into Miss Brill’s self-made universe and breaks her pile dream, and she retreats to her dark apartment, realising the reality of her alienated and disconnected life. It is not difficult to recognize that Mansfield applies the third person limited point of view throughout the story, that is, we know only what Miss Brill’s seeing and thinking; while to help readers understand how this certain point of view has sharpen the theme and better shaped the image of the character, that is, as the title indicates, I would like to give a few examples and contrast the length and breadth between the third person limited point of view and other points of view, or rather, how might the events look if seen from a different point of view.

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About the description

The third person limited point of view depicts the world in a subtle way, especially when this third person is alienated in some sense. Here is one example. “And now an ermine toque and a gentleman in grey met just in front of her” (8), and Miss Brill sets off with her fantasy, picturing the feeling of that lady, like “Oh, she was so pleased to see him—delighted! ... She described where she'd been—everywhere, here, there, along by the sea. The day was so charming—didn't he agree? And wouldn't he, perhaps?” (8). It seems that Miss Brill has viewed those two persons as a couple of lovers or something. However, according to the lady’s action after being “rejected” by the gentleman, “the ermine toque turned, raised her hand as though she'd seen someone else, much nicer, just over there, and pattered away” (8) and considering the legacy and custom of France, it’s not that elusive to realise that the “ermine toque” could be a prostitute flirting with her potential ‘customer’. Besides, the band, which shouldn’t have had anything special to do with any single person in Jardins Publiques, was, in Miss Brill’s imagination, catering to that lady’s feelings, from “played more softly, played tenderly” (8) to “played more quickly, more gayly than ever” (8), which is absolutely untrue. With all these, the author successfully conveys to us the abnormality and insanity of Miss Brill; besides, that description, similar to the so-called situation al irony, would also make the story more attractive and fancy as we suddenly realise the truth of that situation.

??What would the scene look like if written in another point of view, say, the third person objective? That way, it was like:

??“And now a prostitute with an ermine toque and a gentleman in grey met just in front of her…she lifted her hand, in its cleaned glove yet a little bit yellowish, and dabbed her lips. She demonstrated ultimate pleasure and delight in front of the man, trying to flirt around and hook up the customer. However, that gentleman slowly breathed a great deep puff into her face, flicked the match away and walked on, regardless of her temptation, which might have not been thrilling and indulging enough. Rejected, the prostitute was not disappointed – no, not at least – and quickly pattered away, going on with her hunting for males. The band, in the background of all these, was playing as usual, sometimes softly and tenderly, sometimes quickly and gayly, as though nothing had happened.”

??Obviously, the whole paragraph is reduced into a ordinary scene of a prostitute doing her daily job, as the identity of that “ermine toque” is revealed, which either couldn’t arouse readers interests and guesses, a great loss of the reading experience, nor reflect the insanity and fantasy out of Miss Brill’s mind, which I would give further explanations in the following paragraphs. Moreover, due to the neutrality of the third person objective, that is, the thoughts and feelings of characters can’t be stated, which also substantially cut off the depth of the story.

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About the character

Miss Brill is the protagonist of the story, thus the image of her is worth exploring and deliberating, and the third person point of view is, by all means, doing good to that; or rather, the certain point of view has allowed the readers to approach this character in a more delicate method, which could be more impressive. Let’s take the “fur” Miss Brill wears as an example. At the beginning of the story, Miss Brill “was glad that she had decided on her fur” (1), yet on a “brilliantly fine” day, which has been strange enough. Then, she recalled that “she had taken it out of its box…and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes…h(huán)ow sweet it was to see them snap at her again from the red eiderdown…Little rogue biting its tail just by her left ear…” (1). This is one of the excellent sentences which, though a bit confusing at first sight, give us a glimpse of Miss Brill’s boundless fantasy – who else, as an adult, would personify his daily clothing into a lively “dim little eyes”? Besides, probably as a trick of echoing, at the end of the story, “The box that the fur came out of was on the bed” (18) and Miss Brill “unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside”. It is a little bit implicit while still recognisable that, the fur Miss Brill wears is, in effect, the symbolisation of herself. On her going out, the fur is newly taken out of the moth-powder and given a good brush, neat and gorgeous, exactly the projection of Miss Brill’s inner world at that moment; however, when the young couple appear, the girl giggles at her fur for it looks “l(fā)ike a fried whiting” (14), which preludes the break-down of Miss Brill’s confidence and calmness; eventually, on putting away the fur, Miss Brill “thought she heard something crying” (18), which is the climax of this symbolisation – certainly it’s not the fur that is crying, but Miss Brill herself.

??What would this carefully carved symbolisation look like if written in another point of view? It can’t be the third person objective, for symbolisation relates to the mental activities of characters, nor can it be the omniscient, for only one character is involved and there is no difference. Let’s try the first person point of view:

??“I was glad that I had decided on my fur…now I could feel it, nice to feel it. I had taken it out of its box that afternoon…h(huán)ow sweet it was to see them snap at me again from the red eiderdown…I really felt like that about it. Little togue biting its tail just by my left ear. I could have taken it off and laid it on my lap and stoked it…”

? Admittedly, there seemed little difference from the original piece of work – just replace she with I and note the grammer (and it’s not for the number of words!); while from the first person point of view, it is more natural and commonly seen to express the internal feelings and thoughts, thus these fantasies are more likely to be explained as the fondness of that fur instead of a symbolisation, which would weaken the shaping of Miss Brill’s image; another part in the last paragraph is similar. If put as “I thought I heard something crying”, because of the strong and prominent existence of ?ego in that context, the strength of symbolisation is also diluted and readers might think the crying of something else instead of the crying from the inner world of Miss Brill.

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About the theme

According to some more official and serious analyses, the theme of this story could be roughly concluded as the “alienation and disconnection off the reality”, which is a common one of the Modernists. Alas, let’s focus on how the third person limited point of view has helped proposed this theme, instead of investigating how we come to this conclusion. As we know, the central ideal of the third person limited is that the story unfolds through the perspective of only one character, Miss Brill here; therefore, we are able to know both what she is sensing (including seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, etc.) and thinking as well; on the contrary, the outer world we are able to perceive is identical to what Miss Brill herself is able to, which is the physical and observed existence of surroundings, without components such as others’ thoughts. This feature alone, as it indicates the gap between the knowledge of ourselves and the knowledge of the real world, has already bestowed power to the theme of alienation and disconnection.

??Apart from that, let’s examine another example. The climax of the story comes near Paragraph 10 where “it seemed to Miss Brill that in another moment all of them, all the whole company, would begin singing” (10). Under this delusion, Miss Brill felt that “then she too, she too, and the others on the benches—they would come in with a kind of accompaniment” (10), so sentimental as that “Miss Brill's eyes filled with tears and she looked smiling at all the other members of the company” (10). Despite all these touching feelings and descriptions, we have known that they all come out of Miss Brill’s imagination. Nobody in the Jardins Publiques have driven away off their routines: the bandsmen are playing as usual, couples and groups are parading and stroking, people are sitting on the benches and green chairs…everybody is just the same. While in Miss Brill’s eyes, they are all moved and inspired, seeming to realise the genuineness of company and the warmth of humanity – people are all connected, and we can all understand each other. All fake! Thanks to the third person limited point of view, other peoples’ thoughts are concealed yet discoverable – they probably find this smiling lady whose eyes are filled with tears kind of strange and insane – thus a even deeper contrast are formed compared to if described directly with the third person omniscient/objective (and the effects of the first person point of view has been explained in the precedent paragraphs). It is similar to the contrast between when we find a secret ourselves and when somebody simply tell us that straightforward. Therefore, this certain point of view has made the theme more profound and impressive. Through the huge gap between the world in Miss Brill’s cognition and the world in reality, we could also empathise that with our own lives.

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the uniqueness and magic of the third person point of view has made itself irreplaceable and has contributed to the artistic outcome of the story in the aspects of description, character and theme. There are plenty of examples in the story, apart from what I have listed above, which are all convincing evidence and support for the argument. The whole story could look sharply different if written in any other point of view, while the talented Matherine Mansfield had, precisely, chosen the most impressive and extraordinary one, and finished with, by all means, a literally master piece.

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References:

1.???? WANG, Xiao-yan. On the Alienation in Miss Brill. City of Industry: David Publishing Company, 2014

2.???? Hull, and Robert L. Alienation in “Miss Brill”. Newberry, S.C.: Newberry College, 1967

3.???? Rydstrand, Helen. The Rhythms of Character in Katherine Mansfield’s ‘Miss Brill’. Sounding Modernism: Rhythm and Sonic Mediation in Modern Literature and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017