Post-Modernism in Muriel Spark’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie “

 

Post-Modernism in Muriel Spark’s “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie “

 

By

 

Suparna Sinha

 

ABSTRACT

 

Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is one of the finest works in contemporary Scottish literature. It was published in 1961, and depicted the period between WWI and WWII. In 1998, Modern Library, New York chose this book to be in the top 100 best English Language novels of the 20^thcentury, and in 2005 the novel was chosen by Time magazine as one of the one hundred best English-language novels from 1923 to present. This book is about a school teacher who taught a set of six girls in a school at Edinburgh. She is often shown to cross over the bounds of the subjects she is teaching into territories that opens the minds of her students. The story takes place before the advent of the Second World War. It can be classified under Postmodernist literature as there are entwined themes, repetition of sub-themes, subjectivism, convoluted time sequences, at the same time, dealing with the emancipation of women in terms of their religious and moral leanings in the backdrop of an economic depression.

 

Postmodernism as a literary school of thought developed from a rejection of a deterministic view of the world and thus veered towards subjectivism. It was a reaction against the intellectual assumptions in the preceding century. This novel by Muriel Spark, demonstrates in her characters such a laissez faire in formation of individual preferences in matters of education, religion and political disposition. The main protagonist in this novel has been shown to have such a disposition where she goes beyond her brief and takes her students onto realms of thought, where they are on their own, supported solely by their subjective understanding of life, not thwarted by who endorses their viewpoints.

This novel is an autobiography in some respects. Muriel Spark was educated at the James Gillespie’s School for Girls which was fictionalized under the name of Marcia Blaine School in the book. The characterization of the main protagonist, Miss Jean Brodie is based on the personality of Miss Christina Kay, one of Muriel Spark’s favourite teachers. Miss Kay, in real life, had studied in the University of Edinburgh and was wont to sharing her knowledge of diverse subjects beyond the scope of the class. Miss Jean Brodie does the same in the novel, even at the cost of minor reprimands from the school authorities. Like Miss Kay in real life, Miss Jean Brodie gets full support and sympathy from her students, whatever be the issues that she gets embroiled in. Such was her impact and influence on the students, whose characters are shown to be shaped over the course of the novel. 

However, according to Muriel Spark, the character of Miss Brodie is not as powerful as her real life teacher, Miss Kay. In her autobiography titled Curriculum Vitae, Spark says, “In a sense Miss Kay was nothing like Miss Brodie. She was far above and beyond her Brodie counterpart. If she could have met Miss Brodie, Miss Kay would have put the fictional character firmly to her place” (57). This also shows that the era was truly shaping up to embrace the possibilities of post-modernism, in real life, as mirrored in the novel by Muriel Spark.

We find many themes in the novel that points to it being a postmodernist novel. For example, there is more than one protagonist, though Miss Brodie remains the most important of them. This is borne out by the detailed characterisation of Miss Brodie, her students, Sandy and Jenny, and their relationships. Then we have Metafiction, as Sandy and Jenny are writing a book on the love life of Miss Brodie. We also have delineation of the milieu through the depiction of the religious affinities of the characters, their political leanings in the backdrop of an economic depression in the post WWI era in the novel.

As is typical of post-modernist literature, the themes are not distinct, and are interwoven around a central theme, in this case it is Miss Brodie’s “prime”. Another distinctive feature is the repetition of motifs and sub-themes. These are exhibited in the form of short phrases like ‘in my prime’ peppered multiple times throughout the narrative and images, like the death of Mary in a hotel fire, which is repeated many times.

The milieu of the novel offers us valuable hints as to the choices available to a woman during that time after the tumultuous events of World War I. Women’s reality was deeply altered in the Post-War scenario. Women were no longer victims of hope. Economic freedom, identity, choice of education was in the forefront for women. The women characters in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie are neither in friction with, nor would want to match up to their male counterparts. They have their own educational, religious and political freedom. This has been amply demonstrated in the novel. “The headmistress invited Sandy, Jenny and Mary to tea just before the Easter holidays and asked them the usual questions about what they wanted to do in the Senior school, and whether they wanted to do it on the Modern or the Classical side” (Spark  94). This shows that the girls were not forced to take up an option, but could choose to study what they wanted to. They have a choice of taking up the subjects they want to, and follow the career of their choice.

The women had their religious freedom too. Miss Jean Brodie had her own unique religious leanings and a predilection to study alternate religious systems too. “...during this winter term, being laid open by Miss Brodie who, at the same time as adhering to the strict Church of Scotland habits of her youth, and keeping the Sabbath, was now, in her prime, attending evening classes in comparative religion at the University” (Spark 54). Also, the girls in the school were encouraged to have religious beliefs of their own, and to explore the aesthesis in alternative schools of religious thought. “But the girls were set to study the Gospels with diligence for their truth and goodness, and to read them aloud for their beauty”(Spark 54) .

 

The political freedom has also been exhibited in the narrative. Miss Brodie believes in Fascism. She is an ardent supporter of Mussolini. After coming back from Italy, she tells her students that she has interesting pictures which she would want to share with them. “Here is a larger formation of Mussolini's fascisti, it is a better view of them than that of last year's picture. They are doing splendid things as I shall tell you later”(Spark 65). Her admiration for fascisti is evident here. However, her students have the option of aligning with their individual political ideologies. It is very clear from the narrative that Miss Brodie did not force her ideologies onto her students and encouraged them to form their own.

 

This can be seen when her political leanings are adopted by her student, Emily Joyce, and upon Emily’s untimely death, other students complain to the Headmistress against Miss Brodie, leading to her expulsion from the school. This shows that although Miss Brodie’s ideology was adhered to by one student, the others had not aligned as well. The author is describing a milieu in which there was freedom of choice and no compulsion to genuflect to any authority, at least as far as one’s leanings were concerned. This is a major plank in the novel, when the protagonists are not hesitant to express their viewpoints even at the cost of being wrong or paying a price for their ideologies, which may or may not have been in tune with the status quo.  

 

Apart from the milieu of the novel and the liberal ideological choices shown to be available to the protagonists, Muriel Spark additionally employs narrative techniques which place her novel in the post-modernist genre quite clearly. She uses mixed timelines juxtaposing the present with future and past events. The author consciously rejects chronology and time sequences. She handles the narrative with ease by using the flash forward technique. The story initially portrays how the protagonists shape up in their adulthood. To better understand the present events in the novel, Muriel Spark utilizes intuitive flashes into the future. This helps the reader to understand the present more incisively. For example, Mary runs through the laboratory when the magnesium flares are burning. Readers already know that she would die in a fire accident when she is an adult. So her terror and resultant running around, foreshadows and symbolizes her death.

 

The novel opens with the Brodie set, who are sixteen year olds chatting self-consciously with some boys. “The boys, as they talked to the girls from Marcia Blaine School, stood on the far side of their bicycles holding the handlebars, which established a protective fence of bicycle between the sexes, and the impression that at any moment the boys were likely to be away” (Spark 9). This is in the present.

 

At the very outset, Muriel Spark underlines the individuality of the characters by creatively depicting their differences by how they wore their panama hats, in a brilliant way. Not only does it show the literary skills of the author in using a hat worn in multiple ways to depict the characters, she also underlines that Uniformity was not a virtue during those times. This too is a post modernist trait.

 

Soon thereafter, she moves to the past, to a time when the students were ten year olds. After that there is a constant oscillation between their immediate past and distant futures. This fascinating juxtaposition of the future and connecting them to the past provides, for the reader, a better comprehension of the circumstances and paints a more complete picture of the characters and their milieu. The finesse with which she handles the flip flops between past, present and future is a literary treat to savour.

 

The economic depression of the Post-War era is reflected in the novel when Miss Brodie takes the girls for a walk through the city. The long lines of the unemployed people waiting for their doles, bare-foot children playing in the cold weather, the alcoholism and resultant violence in the slums, all delineate the backdrop of abject poverty the city was dealing with after the war. The Brodie set does not seem to know what a “dole” means. Miss Brodie explains it to them. "It is the weekly payment made by the State for the relief of the unemployed and their families. Sometimes they go and spend their dole on drink before they go home, and their children starve” (Spark 59).

 

Subjectivism being one of the important tenets of Postmodernism, it is amply shown in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Miss Brodie lives by personal choices rather than established mores. ““That's what I mean by your insight," said Miss Brodie. "I ought to know, because my prime has brought me instinct and insight, both"” (Spark 158). It can be argued here that her energy could have been channeled in better directions if she would have lived within the limits of belief and community. Instead, she encourages her students to be guided by their instinct and insight. For example, Miss Brodie is not a follower of team spirit. That is the reason why there is not much of a bonding among the girls in the Brodie set. It can also be stated here that the strong individual thinking which Miss Brodie always strived to inculcate in her Brodie set, led to her downfall, when Sandy complained to the headmistress about Miss Brodie’s Fascist leanings. Thus, the postmodernist author is not interested to lionize her characterization of Miss Brodie and thus imbues her with shades of frailties.

 

The elements of postmodernism are found aplenty in this novel where the characters are believable in their authenticity. The author underlines the subjectivity in their mien. She underscores the narrative with the availability of choices the protagonists have in education, religion and political proclivities. And she clearly enunciates the post War milieu. Additionally, she uses convoluted time sequence techniques, metafiction, repetition of motifs, sub-themes that embeds the characters and the narrative into the readers’ mind.

 

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie brought Muriel Spark instant critical acclaim. It is considered one of the masterpieces in Scottish literature. This novel is a fascinating read into the mind of a brilliant author and a tour de force in Post Modernist Literature.

 

 

WORKS CITED

 

Spark, Muriel. Curriculum Vitae: A Volume of autobiography. Boston, Houghton Miffin, 1993.

 

Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. New York, Harper Perennial, 1994.