As a teacher of Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Miss Jean Brodie selects six of her favourite girls to be in her “The Brodie set”, Sandy, is her favourite one and intoxicates in Brodie’s charm. But at the end of the story, Sandy carries her anti-Calvinism and to be a nun but Brodie never present any Calvinism or Catholicism ideas in front of her students. [2]"She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end" (147). Miss Jean Brodie is described as a woman in her prime and as an idealist, she has her own teaching standards and the girls must be devoted to her. Brodie shows her support of Spanish Civil War and Mussolini’s admiration in front of her girls. She also tells them the romantic affair with a man who died in the First World War. [3]The young girls' fascination and curiosity about sex and romance is fueled by Miss Brodie's relationships. Later Sandy discerns the different between fantasy and reality, and awake from Brodie’s selfish desire and idealism through the death of her friend, Joyce Emily who ran to Spain to give support to Franco’s fascisti.
Miss Jean Brodie, [5] idiosyncratic character and unconventional behavior seemingly represent… a wonderful teaching ideal – the committed and inspired teacher, entirely devoted to a profession faced as a mission for life, demanding personal sacrifice and true abnegation. Brodie loves to wear bright outfit contrasting with her girls’ boring grey outfits, she is a center and everyone (the girls) should worship her. According to the Brodie’s unwritten law, once the girls are in The Brodie’s set, you will never find the way to get out. In the school, the power struggle between Brodie and Miss Mackay is that Miss Mackay is opponent to Brodie’s individualism. Mackay tries to find out Brodie’s ‘evidence’ and crumbles her teacher’s power. In the set, Sandy Stranger, among the other girls, is dominated by Brodie’s personality; she can see Brodie’s soul. Dramatically, as a fan of Brodie, Sandy betrays her teacher. Emily Joyce,the cause of Sandy’s betrayal, as an anti-Franco volunteer who ends up dead during the journal to fight for Franco. Sandy wakes up and stands out to betray by denouncing Miss Mackay that Brodie’s ‘evidence’: “She’s a born Fascist, have you thought of that?”. [6]In Sandy’s view, Miss Brodie’s photographs of the Italian fascists, which she shares with the class, convey an order that evinces reterritorializing forces: “They were dark as anything and all marching in the straightest of files, with their hands raised at the same angle, while Mussolini stood on a platform like a gym teacher or a Guides mistress and watched them” (31).However, it doesn’t mean that Brodie is a fascist, she just follows or admire Mussolini’s principal. She does say: “Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life” and it sounds like a slogan of fascism. But she never will be a fascist; she chooses that teaching standard by forming a set can maintain her students’ loyalty and she can enjoys the sense of accomplishment by being worship. Even Brodie fits the fascist’s characteristics but she doesn’t show any support in the violent. Miss Jean Brodie is just naturally admires the three dictators and being impacted by their art of governance capacity.
Miss Jean Brodie is just impacted by fascism or a fascist?
Works Cited
[1] Matthew N. Lyons, “” (Boston: South End Press, 1996) http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/whatfasc.html
[2][3] Philip E. Ray, “Jean Brodie and Edinburgh: Personality and Placevin Murial Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” , Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 13 | Issue 1, (1978)
[4] Laura Bommarito, “The Renunciation of Miss Jean Brodie “ (March 30, 2001) <http://infohost.nmt.edu/~xchanges/old_xchanges/xchanges/1.1/bommarito.html>
[5] Ana Maria Figeira, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, or the Dangerous Embodiment of a Flawed Teaching Ideal”, (March12, 2008)
[6]Suh, Judy” The Familiar Attractions of Fascism in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” , Journal of Modern Literature, Volume 30, Number 2, Winter 2007, pp.86-102 (Article), (Published by Indiana University Press DOI: 10.1353/jml.2007.0014)
Reference
Philip E. Ray, “Jean Brodie and Edinburgh: Personality and Placevin Murial Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” , Studies in Scottish Literature Volume 13 | Issue 1, (1978)
Suh, Judy” The Familiar Attractions of Fascism in Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” , Journal of Modern Literature, Volume 30, Number 2, Winter 2007, pp.86-102 (Article), (Published by Indiana University Press DOI: 10.1353/jml.2007.0014)
Ana Maria Figeira, “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, or the Dangerous Embodiment of a Flawed Teaching Ideal”, (March12, 2008)
Laura Bommarito, “The Renunciation of Miss Jean Brodie “ (March 30, 2001) <http://infohost.nmt.edu/~xchanges/old_xchanges/xchanges/1.1/bommarito.html>
Matthew N. Lyons, “” (Boston: South End Press, 1996) <http://www.publiceye.org/eyes/whatfasc.html>
