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Aging people are often ignored and forgotten by society.
At the story’s beginning, Miss Brill shares a park bench with “a fine old man” and “a big old woman.” The narrator refers to them three times as “the old couple.” Because they are quiet and still, Miss Brill hopes that they will leave soon, though she herself is also quiet and still. The previous Sunday, another couple sat at her bench, but they were uninteresting. Their conversation revolved around eyeglasses, a topic that hints at aging bodies and declining vitality. Their mundane conversation made Miss Brill want to shake the woman.
Miss Brill also notes that the old people at the park sit on benches and chairs (as does she). They have played their parts in life’s drama and now view it from the outside. The narrator describes them as “odd, silent, nearly all old.” They stare as if they come from small, dark rooms, perhaps foreshadowing the coffins of death.
Miss Brill dismisses the old people, preferring to focus on the young, much like society often does. The elderly exist metaphorically outside of society, ignored and forgotten. It is futile for them to refute their marginalization and join the youth, as exemplified when four girls nearly knock down an old man who is in their way.
At the end of the story, readers discover that Miss Brill is herself old. The boy calls her a “stupid old thing,” taking offense at her even being out in public. He represents youthful contempt for age. Ironically, Miss Brill herself shows the same disdain for the old, not recognizing the way her own age has relegated her to the margins of a callous society.
All the world is a stage.
Miss Brill gets excited when she has an epiphany that the bustle of the park is “exactly like a play.” Even the sky beautifully resembles a painted backdrop. Her excitement peaks when she realizes that everyone is on the metaphorical stage, that they serve not just as audience but as actors. Her thoughts allude to a monologue from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. Its opening lines begin with the now-famous phrase “All the world’s a stage” and describe people as actors who enter and exit the action and whose roles change over their lifetimes. The monologue describes “seven ages” of life, from infancy through old age.
Miss Brill’s imagined play includes many of the characters seen in Shakespeare’s world-as-stage. It has children, young lovers, soldiers, old fools, and elderly invalids. The band seems to perform music to set the play’s mood. Miss Brill assumes that everyone carries the tune in their hearts and imagines that they might all break into song, like characters in musical theater.
However, Mansfield rejects this old, idealistic way of thinking about the world. When the young lovers appear, Miss Brill expects them to be the hero and heroine of her play. Instead, they crush her fantasy. The words that come out of their mouths are crass and cruel, not the stuff of Miss Brill’s beautiful play. When the boy says Miss Brill is old and unwanted, and thus has no role to play in their story, she is forced to confront her isolation and disconnection. If the park’s world is a stage, Miss Brill does not make the cut.
People desire connection.
Miss Brill leaves her lonely apartment every Sunday in hopes of connecting with others. Rather than making connections, however, she witnesses others connecting. Couples and groups stroll around the park, children play together, boys meet girls and go off arm in arm. Miss Brill watches and listens. She becomes bothered by old couples who don’t talk or who talk about mundane things like eyeglasses. Their physical connection and superficial conversation do not align with the deeper emotional connection Miss Brill thinks the couples should display.
The woman in the ermine toque searches the park for connection. When she encounters the gentleman in grey, she tries to strike up a conversation. He rejects her by blowing cigarette smoke in her face and leaving without saying a word. Rather than be deterred, the ermine toque continues in her search for “some one else, much nicer, just over there.” Her connection seems just out of reach, but she keeps reaching for it.
Something in Miss Brill holds her back from reaching for the connectedness she desires. It may be the “queer, shy feeling” that keeps her from telling her students about her Sunday afternoon outings. She may fear rejection, like that experienced by the ermine toque. Whatever the reason, Miss Brill does not move out of her comfort zone. Instead, she imagines the park as the setting of a play and the park-goers as actors. Not a mere audience member, she envisions herself as an important member of the company. She imagines all the people in the park as one great chorus, singing together and sharing an understanding.
But the young lovers destroy Miss Brill’s feeling of connectedness. The connection she imagines they will display conflicts with who they really are. They reject her, showing her that her connectedness is just an illusion.
