A Different Point of View// Essay of how POV is used

September 15, 2008

A Different Point of View

Fictional writers tend to express reality in their imaginary characters. To reach an understanding with the audience, fictional writers will create character that the reader can relate to and convey their message through their character’s actions and attitudes. Katherine Mansfield, author of Miss Brill uses her character, Miss Brill, to portray society’s view on women and the pressure of fitting in with other women. Mansfield’s character wears a fur coat, which is symbolic to a women’s religion and beliefs in society, faces rejection at the end of the story, and through Miss Brill, Mansfield expresses her idea how society only gives women a voice or only makes women useful if she is with a man at her side. Mansfield incorporates limited omniscient and stream of consciousness as a point of view to portray her character’s resemblance to real life women in society.

A limited omniscient point of view allows the writer to tell her story through the eyes of a single character. In Miss Brill, the audience can only see what Miss Brill sees, hears, feels, and thinks. While Miss Brill is at the park observing other characters, she continuously notices couples together: “a fine old man” (34) and his “big old woman,” “two young girls” with “two young soldiers,” “a boy and a girl,” (36) and “a beautiful woman” (35) is lost and alone after her “gentleman in grey” walks away. Mansfield use of limited omniscience affects the reader in the sense that it concentrates on a particular character, making the audience feel for and sympathize with that one character. Though it offers a limited field of thought (only Miss Brill’s), a limited omniscient point of view is more closely related to how a reader would truly perceive that scenario in reality; making Miss Brill a easier character to understand and feel compassion for.

Mansfield also uses stream of consciousness as a point of view to imitate how women’s minds work (represented by Miss Brill). Throughout the story, Miss Brill continuously sounds rushed, with over-hyper reactions to situations. As Miss Brill enjoys the music, Mansfield goes on a wild exclamation-point rampage, shouting “how fascinating it was!” and “How she enjoyed it!” (35), then quickly changing the subject to how Miss Brill figures out she is “on the stage” and “part of the performance” of an acting career she’s always wanted to be on. Mansfield continues the use of stream of consciousness as Miss Brill comments on those around her wearing “velvet coat”(34) with “hands clasped over a huge carved walking-stick” and the “old beggar who had his tray fixed to the railings” and even the elders who Miss Brill thinks has just walked “from dark little rooms or even—even cupboards!” Mansfield use of constant overflowing, descriptive and thought-packed sentences demonstrates that Miss Brill is not taken seriously; she is just seen as a character who rambles endlessly about unimportant things she sees. Mansfield use of stream of consciousness ties in with her purpose of the story for the reason that women are often perceived as talkative and sensitive. By incorporating a talkative and sensitive woman, Mansfield can relate to her audience and send her message in a clearer, more precise way.

Together, the use of limited omniscient and the stream of consciousness point of view creates an almost real-life character. Because in this story the stream of consciousness does not include the use of correct sentence structures and is seen as the way a real mind would think and work, the reader is left to infer about Miss Brill’s emotions and future decision. Comparing this overflow of ideas to a limited omniscient point of view, where one character is allowing the audience to see and understand the story though her point of view, it does, in fact, create a perfect stereotypical woman. And because Mansfield wants to relate Miss Brill to other women, creating a story where the main character is too thoughtful, appearing too talkative, and is sensitive to what others think of her, she achieves the development of the human mind. By creating a woman, her story takes shape of how a women’s mind thinks and works. The stream of consciousness along with the limited omniscient produces a character the audience can relate to, and ultimately accept as a person similar to themselves.

In conclusion, the use of stream of consciousness and the limited omniscient point of view is to resemble the human person as much as possible. A women’s mind work in quick, scrambled thoughts and can usually only see the world through one perspective: her own. With the use of two points of view, Mansfield is suggesting that the audience, like Miss Brill, have thoughts that are all a mixture of jumbled thoughts and exclamation-point observations. And to see the world with a better, more positive outlook, perhaps a second, and different, point of view is needed. Mansfield attempts to set across the idea that with single point of view, one can never really understand a situation, whereas with two, the world is a much more acceptable place.