The short story "Miss Brill"," by by Katherine Mansfield, is about a woman called Miss Brill (hence the title) who visits the same park every Sunday. There she sits on a bench and observes her surroundings and its happenings. In the story, the bench can be perceived as Miss Brill's hope. As the old couple sits beside her, she hopes that they might strike a conversation with her ("Miss Brill always looked forward to the conversation. "), however, this is unsuccessful and Miss Brill falls in a state of disappointment. Despite the failure of starting a conversation, she decides to merely eavesdrop on the old man and woman's discussion. .
After the entertainment brought to Miss Brill by her seat mates, she decides to observe the rest of the crowd around her. She sees everything in much detail and the atmosphere created by the band and the people passing by is well described. It is clear that Miss Brill has seen all this very often as she "had often noticed - there was something funny about nearly all of them ", which proves that each week she stops in that same spot to observe a lot of people who she has constantly already seen in her life and others passing by her ˜special' bench.
Around halfway through the story, Miss Brill describes her experiences in the park as a play, in which all of the people, and herself, are part of. This can be seen as an optimisation for her loneliness, which she tries to overcome by thinking of her situation in a way in which the people around her and herself all work together. The reality, however, which is clear to the reader, shows that Miss Brill is actually a lonely woman and does not have any contact with these people, rather, she merely observes them to satisfy her happiness.
Towards the end of the short story, a young man and woman sit beside her. She eavesdrops on their conversation and hears the insult directed towards her from the fellow as he calls her a ˜stupid old thing'.
