Miss Brill
by Katherine Mansfield

Throughout the story the reader gets subtle hints at Miss Brill's character. The effect is that the reader has to pay close attention to the small details and guess at the meaning of them. For example, the state of her fir says that she is older. It is shabby and old. She pulls it out of the box it originally came in and the nose is not firm any more. To fix it "a little black sealing-wax when the time came" would do the trick. Furthermore, at the end of the story, the girl comments on how ugly the fir is. Miss Brill, however, obviously purchased it when it was in fashion because she is so proud of it. She is like old women today who wear over sized earrings which were in style a long time ago. Additionally, young women usually do not sit in the park all day by themselves.