Miss Emily vs. Miss Brill: A Compare and Contrast Essay
This essay compares and contrasts the central characters of William Faulkner's "A Rose for Miss Emily" and Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill," two women defined by loneliness and a longing for the past. The paper examines how each woman copes with isolation differently: Miss Brill seeks connection through observation and imagination, while Miss Emily withdraws into stubborn reclusiveness. Drawing on textual quotations from both stories, the essay explores themes of desolation, emotional dependency, and personality, ultimately arguing that both characters — though vastly different in temperament — share lives marked by grief, disconnection, and the painful weight of memory.
- Introduction: Two Women, Two Stories: Overview of both characters and their shared themes
- Loneliness as a Central Theme: How each woman experiences and expresses isolation
- Emotional Dependency and Coping Mechanisms: Objects and people each character depends on
- Personality and Attitude: Compassion vs. Obstinacy: Contrasting temperaments illustrated through key scenes
- Conclusion: Shared Melancholy, Different Paths: Both heroines united by grief and memory
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper consistently uses direct quotations from both primary texts to support each comparative claim, giving the argument a strong textual foundation.
- It maintains a clear parallel structure throughout, alternating between Miss Brill and Miss Emily to keep the comparison balanced and easy to follow.
- The essay captures thematic nuance by recognizing that two characters can share a central condition — loneliness — while responding to it in entirely opposite ways.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates effective point-by-point comparison, a standard comparative essay technique in which each paragraph addresses a shared theme (loneliness, dependency, personality) and then examines how each character exemplifies or diverges from that theme. This method keeps the analysis focused and prevents the essay from becoming two separate character summaries.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a brief framing of both works, then proceeds through three thematic comparisons: the nature of each character's loneliness, their dependency on external figures or objects, and their contrasting personalities. Textual evidence is woven into each section. The conclusion brings both threads together, noting that despite their differences in temperament, both women are ultimately defined by grief and the inability to move beyond the past.
Introduction: Two Women, Two Stories
"A Rose for Miss Emily" by William Faulkner and "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield tell the stories of two women who have been through a great deal in their past lives and are each trying, in her own way, to relive that past in the present. The characters of Miss Emily and Miss Brill share important similarities. While Miss Brill reconnects with her past through happy, imaginative thoughts, Miss Emily views the present as a force trying to drag her away from everything she once knew. Both characters symbolize loneliness: Miss Brill attempts to reach out to the world around her, whereas Miss Emily shuts herself away from her neighbors and townsfolk. They are, in essence, the same and yet profoundly different in attitude and personality.
Loneliness as a Central Theme
From the opening pages of both stories, readers quickly recognize that both women are deeply lonely. The key difference lies in how each character responds to that loneliness. Miss Brill fights it actively, while Miss Emily makes a kind of uneasy peace with it. Miss Brill ventures out every Sunday to the park, where she watches the people around her as though they were performers in a play staged for her benefit.
As Mansfield writes:
"There were a number of people out this afternoon, far more than last Sunday. And the band sounded louder and gayer. That was because the Season had begun. For although the band played all the year round on Sundays, out of season it was never the same. It was like someone playing with only the family to listen; it didn't care how it played if there weren't any strangers present." (Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill")
Miss Emily, by contrast, finds it impossible to release her grip on the past following her father's death. Unlike Miss Brill, she possesses an obstinate outlook toward life and refuses entirely to change her way of living. As Faulkner observes: "After her father's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all." (William Faulkner, "A Rose for Miss Emily")
Emotional Dependency and Coping Mechanisms
As a consequence of their loneliness, both Miss Brill and Miss Emily grow dependent on certain figures or objects in their lives. Miss Brill places her emotional reliance on the Sunday band performances and, most strikingly, on her fur stole — a companion she treats as though it were alive:
"Miss Brill put up her hand and touched her fur. Dear little thing! It was nice to feel it again. She had taken it out of its box that afternoon, shaken out the moth powder, given it a good brush, and rubbed the life back into the dim little eyes... Oh, how sweet it was to see them snap at her again from the red eiderdown!... But the nose, which was of some black composition, wasn't at all firm. It must have had a knock, somehow. Never mind — a little dab of black sealing-wax when the time came — when it was absolutely necessary... Little rogue! Yes, she really felt like that about it. 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." (Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill")
This passage reveals just how deeply attached Miss Brill is to the fur, treating it as a living creature rather than a garment. She has also come to know everyone at the park purely through sustained, solitary observation, noticing even the smallest changes — such as the conductor's new coat: "Wasn't the conductor wearing a new coat, too? She was sure it was new." (Katherine Mansfield, "Miss Brill")
Miss Emily's loneliness, by contrast, was rooted primarily in the loss of her father, the most beloved figure in her life. After his death she became heavily dependent on Homer Barron, a man who was in many ways her opposite. She refused to accept anything the new era had to offer, forbidding the newer generation to attach metal house numbers above her door or install a mailbox when Jefferson introduced free mail delivery. Unlike Miss Brill, who observed the wider world with curiosity, Miss Emily communicated with the outside world solely through her manservant, Tobe. The physical and emotional decay of both Miss Emily and her house served to underscore her mental and psychological deterioration.
After reading both stories, one recognizes that loneliness is the central theme of each work. The essential difference is how each character chooses — or is compelled — to live with that desolation.
Conclusion: Shared Melancholy, Different Paths
Both authors portray their heroines as women defined by memory — figures who live by reliving the past rather than engaging with the present. Both Miss Brill and Miss Emily faced hardship and desolation, but each navigated that suffering in her own distinct way. Towards the end of both stories, readers are left with a lingering sense of melancholy and sorrow for two women whose lives, though very different in temperament and circumstance, were equally marked by loneliness, loss, and the impossibility of letting go.
Works Cited
Katherine M. "Miss Brill." Accessed 8 Feb. 2004.
William F. "A Rose for Miss Emily." Accessed 8 Feb. 2004.
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