Harriet Smith is a sweet, impressionable girl. Miss Brill is a mysterious figure, who reveals her true character only a little at a time. These women are both completely opposite characters. We first meet Harriet, a character in Jane Austen’s Emma, at a particularly difficult moment in Emma’s life. Austen’s introduction of Harriet is rather brisk and provides a very clear and unassuming picture of exactly who Harriet Smith is. Miss Brill, on the other hand, is revealed by her creator, Katherine Mansfield, only in small snippets of information, which most often are never revealed directly to the reader. Each woman provides a clear example of two very different styles of writing.
Austen first introduces Harriet Smith to us just after the wedding of Emma’s close friend, Miss Taylor. As with every other character of Austen’s, almost everything we need to know about Miss Smith is revealed within the first three paragraphs of her initial introduction. Within those three paragraphs we learn about every aspect of Harriet’s character – her history, her particular position in society, her connections, her physical appearance, and her personality. However while Austen was writing Emma in 1815, this style of writing was very popular. Harriet’s detailed and abrupt introduction in Austen’s novel leaves no room for the reader to imagine a different Harriet. However if not only to imagine a different Harriet, Austen could have provided more suspense and intrigue to the plot if Harriet was not introduced so suddenly.
Virginia Woolf made this case in her essay Character in Fiction, a response to Arnold Bennett’s criticism of modern writers. In Bennett’s generation of writers characters were introduced to the novel much the same way that Austen introduces Harriet. Bennett argues that in order for a novel to succeed the characters must be “real” and that this is best achieved through his generation’s style of writing. In other words the characters are there to better facilitate the message the author wishes to convey on to his readers. While I find this to be a very efficient argument, Virginia Woolf’s counter argument is also very convincing. She argued that writing a novel must not always be written with the goal of conveying a deep message about politics, society, or education, but that a novel can focus only on its characters and therein exam what exactly makes that character so “real”. Woolf wrote with the goal in mind to introduce the reader to a character that they may or may not know personally, and to reflect deeply on what exactly makes that character a “person”.
We can see an example of what Woolf meant in Mansfield’s Miss Brill. The reader is plunged head first into the life of some woman who enjoys going to the park every Sunday. As the story goes on, the reader is only slowly introduced to Miss Brill. The first thing we learn from the narrator is that, “Miss Brill is glad she had decided on her fur.” (Mansfield) From this first sentence the reader slowly begins to build a picture in his or her mind. Mansfield is very methodical and only gives us glimpses of Miss Brill’s character periodically throughout the story. This style of writing is intriguing! It is so unique and thought provoking. By writing this way Mansfield is slowly developing Miss Brill’s character while at the same time allowing the reader to develop his or her own version of Miss Brill. Each person who reads this short story will come away with their own personal Miss Brill. We can get a better understanding of exactly who she is!
After reading Miss Brill, I feel like there is something in Harriet that is lacking. Even though Austen clearly tells me at the beginning exactly what Harriet is like, I still feel as if I don’t really know her. Miss Brill on the other hand has become my personal companion, who I think of at random moments throughout the day. These two authors clearly have very different writing styles, but in the end who wrote a more intriguing character? Each of them will swear to have successfully created a well-developed personality. But in the end, Miss Brill is the only one who will keep you up at night wondering what she must be like.
Austen, Jane. Emma. 1815. Locations 270-85 (Kindle edition)
Woolf, Virginia. Characters in Fiction. 1924. Essay
Mansfield, Katherine. Miss Brill. 1920.
Katherina Delgado
This essay is a good example of solid writing. You start off with a good introduction and then follow up with just as good body paragraphs. Furthermore, your paper moves to an overall idea and does everything to get to that point. The only, possibly, wrong thing with this essay is that your opinion seems to influence your decision more than factual merit. That's not to say that you don't have facts to back up your opinion, as much as saying that your opinion is obvious with approximately equal attributes assigned to both. This isn't even a big issue, since this is essentially an opinion piece anyway. Just make a small note that your reasoning may need to be examined more thoroughly in a different style essay.
ReplyDeleteEric Carl
Like Eric said, this essay is well written. The first paragraph efficiently describes your analysis of Harriet and Miss Brill. I think that Austin's somewhat plain description of Harriet is useful though, because it allows for the reader to focus more on Emma. I was much more concerned on Emma's growth rather than Harriet's while reading the novel. I felt the same way about Miss Brill. Using the story to reveal information about the protagonist created much more interest in both the plot and characters for me.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Corbitt