Katherine
Mansfield’s writing style was very unique and interesting for the format of a
short story. She used the inspiration of previous short story writers and
seemed to have felt obligated to discuss the difficulties and tribulations of
the upper middle class. Some of her stories often showed a great similarity to
her Russian counterpart.
She
was greatly inspired by her Russian role model Anton Chekhov. Elisabeth
Schneider, in Katherine
Mansfield and Chekhov, says
“the influence of Chekhov and Katherine Mansfield has often been remarked. She
herself freely expressed admiration and a feeling of kinship for her Russian
predecessor. Chekov’s story “The Lady with the Little Dog” talks about the
sadness and dull life of the bourgeoisie society. Even though the characters in
his story find the happiness they are looking for, they cannot enjoy it to its
fullest extent due to the fact they cannot get away from their loveless
marriages. This is very similar to some of Mansfield’s writing techniques.
In
her story “Miss Brill,” Mansfield describes a woman who cannot find happiness
in a middle to upper class society. Miss Brill does find happiness, however,
only in a fantasy world, and when she realizes her fantasy isn’t real, she
loses her happiness. The way Mansfield describes Miss Brill’s life is almost
comical and could be categorized as a bourgeoisie satire.
One
of Mansfield’s most common writing styles is satire. Jack Garlington, in Katherine Mansfield: The Critical
Trend, says “there is a
large group of stories that are satirically turned, that are frequently
flippant or caustic in treatment, and that deal with a rather restricted group
of themes, usually a portrayal (and a hostile one) of bourgeois home life.” The
satire that could be presented in Miss
Brill is when she talks to
the homeless man every week and says how she was an actress. I think that
Mansfield was making fun of Ms. Brill because she is a strange character
trapped in a fantasy which is the place she can find happiness. Mansfield’s
tone provides a light hearted and comical feel. In most cases, a story like
this would have a dark, eery, and saddened tone.
Mansfield
has another often used writing style that deals with more emotion. Jack
Garlington, from Katherine
Mansfield: The Critical Trend,
says, “the second group is directed not at satirical dissection, but at the
eliciting of some more sympathetic emotion-pathos, nostalgia, or the tragic
sense of life.” Mansfield’s story “The Fly” tells
a story of a saddened boss from the death of his son and the tragic sense of
life. Jack Garlington says “the burden of the story is the cruelty of life; the
side issue is the Boss’s factitious desire to summon up grief for his dead
son.”
As
a reader, I was more affected by Mansfield’s "The Fly"
and the emotion behind it. I thought Miss
Brill was a satire and I did
not take it seriously. I enjoyed her emotional writing better because she
seemed to put more into it and really let the readers know the true emotion of
her characters.
It
is evident that Mansfield has two prominent writing styles, one that is
influenced by Anton Chekhov, and the other which is based on the raw emotion of
her characters. Her two styles have affected the short story literature and
could possibly affect the styles of other short story writers.
Do
you think "Miss Brill" could be categorized as a satire and can you make any other
connections between the style of Chekhov's "Lady with the Little Dog" and
Mansfield's "Miss Brill"?
WORKS CITED
Schneider, Elisabeth. "Katherine Mansfield
and Chekhov." Modern Language Notes
50.6 (1935): 394-97.
Garlington, Jack. "Katherine Mansfield:The
Critical Trend." Twentieth Century Literature
2.2 (1956): 51-61.
Now that you have mentioned it, I can distinctly see the two different writing styles of Mansfield. I also enjoyed Mansfield’s more serious and emotionally intact writing style. I could feel the pain of the boss in “The Fly” and was touched by how she chose to metaphorically connect the boss to the fly. I’m not saying that I did not enjoy “Miss Brill”, but for me “Miss Brill” was much harder to capture the true essence of the emotions involved. I never before thought of the stories “Miss Brill” and “The Lady with the Little Dog” to be connected but I can see where they are now! In both of these stories the women are longing to have connections in reality when they are living in fantasy. These fantasy worlds meet their realities and don’t fan out the way they wish. In “The Lady with the Little Dog” the lady is having a secret affair in hopes to have a relationship that truly makes her happy, but when her reality sets in, she is stuck with her husband. In “Miss Brill” the woman believes people view her as she views herself; an actress. But in reality people think she is crazy and very out of date, bringing her fantasy into perspective.
ReplyDeleteI found the short stories by Mansfield to be fairly sad. Both "The Fly" and "Miss Brill" were about two grieving characters coming to terms with their depression and loneliness. Even though it is hard to grasp the emotion in "Miss Brill" it think the ending really showed the true loneliness and denial that the woman was living in. Miss Brill is living in her own little world to escape her true feelings. Only in the end does she break down and reveal her true emotions. The character in "The Fly" is seen dealing with his true emotions at a much greater extent. This sad emotion is much more apparent in "The Fly" than it is in "Miss Brill."
ReplyDeleteI think that Miss Brill can be characterized as both a satire and a story with raw emotion. We only see this raw emotion at the very end but, I believe it hits the reader square in the face. One other similarity I found with Chekhov's "The Lady with the Little Dog" and "Miss Brill" is that both the women longed for an adventure and some spice to their life. Miss Brill found it in a fantasy world and Anna Sergeevna found it in an affair. Both women are faced to deal with real, raw emotions as well!
ReplyDeleteTo me both of these stories had depressing connotations. Alough this is less apparent in "Miss Brill" than in "The Fly" I still would not consider either story to be a comical satire. I understand your arguement about how the characters experiences and how their depression is presented to the ready can almost be seen as comical. Upon first reading you may think that both of the characters may be seen as over the top in their presentation. Especially "Miss Brill" when she creates the fantasy world. But when you read the ending and go back and think about what you read I see the text as being depressing in full rather than just at the end.
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