A Literary Stylistic Analysis of Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill

Abstract

Katherine Mansfield, one of the most renowned female writers in the world of literature, created 93 works in her brief lifetime, many of which are considered classics by posterity. Mansfield’s outstanding contribution to literature lies in her innovation in the realm of short stories, and she is widely recognized as one of the finest short story writers in the history of English literature. Miss Brill is one such masterpiece, depicting the story of Miss Brill as she dresses neatly and goes to the park on a Sunday, sitting on a bench and observing the people passing by, listening to their conversations and the band playing. She imagines herself as a part of their world, but her illusions are shattered by a young couple, and she returns home, disheartened, to what feels like a cupboard of a home. This short story exemplifies the artistic techniques in Mansfield's storytelling, with one of the prominent features being the charm emanating from the stylistic choices in her works. Literary stylistics is concerned with the language features of literary works, exploring how authors use language to express the themes of their works and enhance their aesthetic value. This paper will delve into literary stylistics, focusing on the text of the short story Miss Brill, examining its lexical features, grammatical features, and figures of speech to explore how Mansfield uses specific language choices to convey and enhance the thematic significance and aesthetic effects of her work.