Miss Brill Essay, Research Paper

Forms Of Lit.

In “Miss Brill,” “The Chrysanthemums” and “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” each female protagonists has an insight about them self. They each learn something new about the world they live in. The three women who are discussed in these stories have lived very uneventful lives and are just thriving for something to happen.

Miss Brill is a lonely old lady, who is a school teacher and lives in France. In her spare time she likes to get dressed up in her fur wrap and then go to the park. Since little old ladies love to have routines, this is ideal for Miss Brill. At the park she has a tendency to listen to other people’s conversations. She had a way of incorporating people’s lives into little plays that she enjoyed watching. For some reason, she receives such joy and excitement from this activity. One reason could be that she lives such a dull life that other people’s happiness and worries made her appreciate life.

While Miss Brill was listening to the young couple’s conversation, she overheard them speaking nasty things about her. The young lady said “why does she come here at all, who wants her?” For once Miss Brill was not in the audience watching but, she was actually in the performance. Those hurtful words that were directed at her, made her feel horrible. For the first time Miss Brill was getting a taste of her own medicine. She never realized how wrong it was to listen to other people’s business until now. All Miss Brill wanted was to be apart of something

and now that she finally was, her attitude has changed. She now realizes what she really is,

which is a little old lady who loves to listen to other people’s business. Now she understands that this is wrong. Miss Brill has learned that the world is a vicious place and words do hurt. After this experience she probably will not return to park for a while.

In the “Jilting of Granny Weatherall,”the protagonist is an elderly lady around eighty who is very unhappy with her life. At the moment she is very ill. Her body looks weak and her bones felt loose. She still tried to convince herself that she was fine by saying to the doctor “Leave a well women alone.” Her time was running out but, she still had some unfinished business to tend to. Granny Weatherall planned on finishing it all up before she died. In her mind she was still replaying an event that happened many years ago. Every time she thought about her first husband leaving her at the altar it still made her depressed. It was a feeling of rejection that did not sit well with her. Even though she was happily married the feelings continued to haunts her.

Another event that continues to depress her is, her baby’s death. Her first born Hapsy died in child birth, which made her feel rejected again. The two people she loved the most left her and never gave a reason. In her mind she is still looking for the love that she never got back. She realizes that both of these men never gave her love in return and that made her angry. It made her feel angry because she received nothing in return. Granny Weatherall will never change because her life is ending and these men who hurt her are gone. She will never be able to confront them and due to that she will still be depressed.

In “The Chrysanthemums” the protagonist is a strong willed thirty-five year-old women, who has a love for flowers like no other. She tends to her garden everyday, basically her garden

is her haven. Elisa lives the same life day in and day out. She basically does all the household chores and then tends to her garden. In a way her flower’s puts a smile on her face.

One day while she was tending to her chrysanthemums, a stranger passed by and asked if she needed any help. At first her response was no but, as they continued to talk about flowers Elisa’s interested peaked. For the first time she felt flattered by another man. He told her that a lady down the road would love to have flowers like these and then she started to make up a pot. Moments later Elisa’s attitude changed and she found work for the stranger. She proceeded eagerly to discuss her flowers with the strange by saying “It’s the budding that takes the most care…” At this point she is so wrapped up in the flowers that she does not even realize how badly she is flirting.

Well now the stranger is gone and her husband decides to take her out to dinner. As Elisa is beginning to get ready, she starts to feel attractive. Her husband makes a comment about how nice she looks and in return Elisa says “Nice? You think I look nice? What do you mean by nice?” She gets very defensive toward her husband because she wants to know how she really looks. As they were driving down the road, Elisa sees the flowers on the side of the road without the pot. For a moment she struggles not to think badly of him, but then she begins to cry like an old lady. Elisa begins to realize that she got more or less robbed by the stranger. In a way she was beguiled into giving him work and basically she looks like a sucker. Her gullible actions have made her look like a fool. Elisa will never change from this experience because she like when people admire her or her flowers. She likes compliments and because of this she will continue to be oblivious to the world around her.

All three of these protagonist women have finally realized how the world works. They still may not understand at times but, they have a fairly good idea of what is going on. All three of these women have finally found insight about their lives. These three stories have made me the reader understand how authors show their epiphany in their writing.