Miss Brill

Miss Brill is an English woman living in France. She teaches English in a French school. In the story, Brill is portrayed as a naive character intent on observing others. The French setting sets her apart from those she observes. It distances her from everyone else and makes the reader sympathize with her. When the teenagers make fun of her on the bench and refer to her as "that stupid old thing," the reader can see that she is out of place, and her reaction shows that this feeling makes her feel ashamed and self-conscious. The contrast of the setting with Brill's nationality characterizes her as a vulnerable woman who copes by pretending she's an actress. She is convinced that she is an actress on a stage, so why wouldn't she believe that the people around her were just actors playing a role, not people who look down on her?