Analysis of Miss Brill’s Solitude in Miss Brill.docVIP

Introduction Research Aim and Thematic Overview Katherine Mansfield(1888-1923), born in a middle class family in Wellington, New Zealand has been a prominent and leading master in the field of short fiction.Bliss, published in 1920’s, helped Mansfield get established as one of the outstanding writers in the Modernist period. Followed in 1922, The Garden City enjoyed a high evaluation as well. 　　　 As Mansfield has made great contribution to short stories, I want to make deeper investigation into her works.In order to better understand them, examining the themes that Mansfield attempted to reveal is of great necessity. This thesis takes a thematic study of Miss Brill--one of Catherine Mansfield ‘s works, dealing with solitude that is a recurrent theme in Mansfield’s short stories. 　　　 Haunted by death, isolation, wandering life, Mansfield was obsessed with alienation and solitude in her adulthood. And she attempted to record this sense of alienation, insecurity and solitude in her writing as faithfully as she could.In the meanwhile, “Mansfield emphasized the distinctive note in her sense of the world--that each person lives to himself or herself alone.”(Antony Alpers,1982:99) Thus, solitude predicament is a recurrent theme that Mansfield probed into. This kind of solitude derives from alienation of the individual in the society and self-induced alienation that occurs in the protagonist’s soul. 　　　 In Miss Brill, the protagonist who lives in self-built illusionary world suffers from a conflict between idealism of life and bitter reality. She tends to indulge herself in social activities with much passion as well as hope,and look at the optimistic side of life. However, her expectations and hope are brutally denied. 　　　 This thesis is consisted of three parts. To begin with, introduction deals with the aim of this thesis,overview of the theme--solitude and literature review. The second chapter explores the idea of solitude in graphic detail. In the meanwhil