Miss._Brill

In the short stories “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield and “Tears Idle Tears” by Elizabeth Bowen, both of these stories have dynamic characters in them. A dynamic character is a character that undergoes a permanent change in a story. Miss Brill and Frederick are both dynamic characters and underwent significant changes in their stories. In the beginning of the story of “Tears Idle Tears” Frederick “burst into tears” (101) and is not capable of stopping himself from crying and he does not know why he cries. He has an epiphany and realizes he is not the only one that cries. This epiphany has an encouraging and positive change on Frederick. A girl then tells him that she “‘knows another boy who cries like you’.” (105) Frederick then stops crying and is happy that he is not the only one that cries. He now knows that he is not the only person that cries like he does. As a result he does not feel alone anymore like he did in the beginning of the story. He feels content knowing that there is someone like him. Furthermore, the character Miss Brill in the story “Miss Brill” also has an epiphany. She realizes that she is lonely and unwanted because even though she thought she was the centre of attention Miss Brill was disconnected from the world. She saw the world as a stage, “it was like a play” (330) too her. Two children then tell her that she is “‘stupid and old’.” (331)After hearing this she is shocked and cannot go through with her regular routine of buying a slice of honeycake after her visit to the park. This was a negative change for Miss Brill. She thought she was wanted but she now realized she was undesired. In conclusion Miss Brill and Frederick are both dynamic characters and both of them underwent significant changes in their stories. Frederick’s epiphany was that he realized he was not the only one that cried therefore changing him from a miserable to a cheerful character at the end of the story. Miss Brill’s epiphany was that she realized she was alone and undesired. She changed from a character that she thought was the center of attention to an alone and unwanted character.