Theme 1- Miss Brill

"Why does she come here at all--who wants her?" pg. 186

Through this indirect characterization, we see that Miss Brill is a very lonely woman. She spends her days people watching and imagining far-fetched situations as realities. She thought that her life was part of some huge play. This clearly shows that she has issues. She personifies her fur by talking to it as if it were a human. She also thinks she hears it cry when she puts it away. I think that the cry represents her loneliness. Its as if she is imagining this to be someone desperately pleeing to be with her. I found it strange that she didn't seem to let the harsh word of the young couple phase her. Considering she had no one, I would think those words would have some impact on her. I wonder if she has something wrong with her or if she is just lonely.

Pattern 2: Death, be not proud

"we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die." lines 13-14

In this poem, the speaker personifies death and addresses it through an apostrophe. The speaker is firm in his belief that is nothing to be feared. He expresses this at the beginning of the poem, "though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so." He believes that death has no real powers in itself, rather it is a "slave to fate, chance, kings,and desperate men." The speaker expresses that death will never overpower us as humans. He supports this with the thought of after life. Jesus died for us so that we could live with him in heaven for all of eternity. The speaker argues that even though death may take our physical life, it will never rob us of our spiritual life with God. That is why he doesn't think death should be feared. We will be able to live with God for all of eternity regardless of how, when, where, or at what age we die.