Miss Brill

Miss Brill looked forward to her Sunday outing when she went to the public gardens to eavesdrop on people’s conversations. Miss Brill seems to consider herself an expert on involving herself in the lives of whom she does not know, “She had become really quite expert, she thought at listening as though she didn’t listen...” Miss Brill is an old lonely woman, but instead of being depressed she creates a world of her own in which she is important and valued. She enjoys going to the park, but a very rude couple she overhears changes the way she sees herself.

In this short story, Miss Brill, is a round character. It is very difficult to understand her because she does not understand herself. She tries to make her life more than it really is. Sitting in the park, Miss Brill comments on the people walking by, “The old people who sat on the benches like statues, ...