Miss Brill Judgment and Otherness in "Miss Brill"

Katherine Mansfield's short story "Miss Brill' appears at first to be a rather simplistic and superficial description of an older woman and her silly infatuation with her fur stole. By the end of the story, however, the reader realizes that there is an irony at work throughout the text on several levels, and the very appearance of superficiality that is so well-crafted early on in the story is revealed to be a misconception contrived equally by the perspective of the story itself and by the reader, who must necessarily employ their standard human perceptions, subjectivities, and judgments in order to engage with the story. Through detailed renderings of character, point-of-view, and setting -- as well as through the rather oblique nature of the story's plot -- Mansfield very poignantly and pointedly explores the theme of "otherness" and the manner in which human beings judge one another without really knowing them.

Character is clearly one of the most essential elements of this story and it's theme, as the title itself indicates. Everything in the text revolves around Miss Brill, and the descriptions of her all but insist that the reader leap to immediate judgments about a rather silly-seeming old woman who thinks of her fur as a pet:...

Little rogue biting its tail just by her left ear. She could have taken it off and laid it on her lap and stroked it" (par. 1). Other descriptions of Miss Brill also make her seem somewhat vain and wrapped up in her own little fantasy, and it is difficult for the reader to develop any deep sympathy for her right during the majority of the story as she seems so happy and contented with her own little imaginings and her own superficial observations of others.
These observations are delivered form a third-person narrator, but it is third-person limited and the story really seems to be told from Miss Brill's perspective. In this way, not only do the descriptions of Miss Brill seem to encourage a quick and superficial judgment, but Miss Brill herself does the exact same thing with her people-watching on a Sunday afternoon. Recollecting the older couple she had seen last week, she recalled the husband as "wearing a dreadful Panama hat," and how patiently he ha d listened to the wife's complaining that went on so long, "Miss Brill had wanted to shake her" (par. 3). Similar observations are made of others, and Miss Brill notes that she feels like an actress -- she is putting on a part while watching others as the really are (she does note that there are other "actors"…