Heaven 2023: July Book Group: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Mavis Grind
Shipmate
I'm posting this a day early because it looks like I'll be very busy tomorrow.
Six chapters over 122 pages. A quickie then, a bit of a doddle so it seems. But not so fast; you need to pay close attention because Muriel Spark is a notably succinct writer and she keeps you on your toes. All the same, you could be able to manage it twice and pick up a lot on the second reading.
Her sixth novel, which may or may not be her best but which is certainly her most famous. It first appeared as a long short story in the New Yorker and was published as a novel in 1961. It became a West End stage play in 1966 with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role, and a film in 1969 with Maggie Smith as Miss Brodie and a rare (and final) film role for Celia Johnson as the headmistress. If you get a chance to see the film during the month then perhaps you might enjoy comparing and contrasting it with the book.
Happy reading!
Six chapters over 122 pages. A quickie then, a bit of a doddle so it seems. But not so fast; you need to pay close attention because Muriel Spark is a notably succinct writer and she keeps you on your toes. All the same, you could be able to manage it twice and pick up a lot on the second reading.
Her sixth novel, which may or may not be her best but which is certainly her most famous. It first appeared as a long short story in the New Yorker and was published as a novel in 1961. It became a West End stage play in 1966 with Vanessa Redgrave in the title role, and a film in 1969 with Maggie Smith as Miss Brodie and a rare (and final) film role for Celia Johnson as the headmistress. If you get a chance to see the film during the month then perhaps you might enjoy comparing and contrasting it with the book.
Happy reading!
Comments
I've seen the film with Maggie Smith - more than once, although not for years. [accent]"My girrllls will always be Brodie girrllls." [/accent]
I've read it a couple of times, and it will be worth revisiting.
1. If you had been a pupil at Marcia Blaine's, would you have wanted to be part of the Brodie Set?
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
3. She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end. In what way does the book reflect Calvinism?
4. Jean Brodie admired Mussolini - in what way does this novel, set in the 1930s, and based on a real-life teacher, illustrate public opinion in the 1930s?
5. This is Muriel Spark's best -known book. If you have read any others, is it your favourite?
Miss Brodie is an awful teacher - she picks favourites, encourages bullying, and while she says she's drawing out what is in her pupils, she's just expressing her opinions. But she's clearly an inspiring experience for most of her pupils.
This is the view of Calvinism of a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism (and I can't believe Spark never read Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner). Miss Brodie is someone who is convinced that whatever she does is the right, pure, and noble thing because she does it. That is also I think why Miss Brodie leans towards Fascism.
Whether that is a fair characterisation of Calvinism is another matter. I think Marilynne Robinson is not a fan of Spark, though she and Spark are I think not entirely dissimilar.
I think it is Spark's best book: there's just a lot more going on. Not that her other books don't have a lot going on, but The Prime covers more ground. And then there's the writing: it has those paragraphs which loop forwards and back through the characters' lives and make it look easy.
Anyway, a couple of questions of my own?
A) was Sandy right to betray Miss Jean Brodie? Why or why not? Do you think the book presents it as the right thing to do?
A critic I respect, and who knew Spark, said Sandy is a villain because she treats the people around her as a novelist treats characters in a novel. It seems to me that Miss Brodie is the one who treats people as characters in a novel. What do people think?
I expect so. I think most of us at school want to be part of the "in"crowd and I was no exception.
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
Memorable, certainly, and she clearly made a life-long impression on the Set (and maybe on other pupils as well). I was horrified by some of her views, on the reread, and I think Sandy was right to put a stop to her.
5. This is Muriel Spark's best -known book. If you have read any others, is it your favourite?
I "did" Muriel Spark at university and know that I must have read others of hers, certainly Memento Mori and The Girls of Slender Means. I can't remember any of them other than this one, and when I came to reread it I realised I hadn't remembered it nearly as well as I thought I had. Were it not that I always have a long "To Read" list I would add The Girls of Slender Means to it as a couple of people have said they think it's her best.
I don't think so in the sense of being a favourite of Miss. Brodie. I would have seen that as unjust. I was a favourite student of my Year 12 English teacher and it made me uncomfortable. Later she upset my younger sister, who had her as a teacher in Year 9 when she was a bit rebellious, by comparing her to me unfavourably, which is really unprofessional.
When I was about 13 to 15 I had trouble finding a group of friends who would be kind to me, each other and girls outside the group. My high school was very cliquey at that age and if you disagreed with your friends or defended someone outside the group, as I sometimes did, it made you the Mary of the group. The popular kids at my school were also 'too cool for school' rebels who smoked, drank and did soft drugs so I can't really relate to what it would be like to go to a high school like Marcia Blaine's. Thankfully by the later years of high school everyone outgrew the mean girl stage and the rebels either decided to focus on their studies, left school for a job or trade or were sadly expelled, so I had a good group of friends then. Maybe the girls of the Brodie set would be good friends, but we know very little about all the other girls at the school, who might have been kinder or more my sort of people.
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
Miss. Brodie was great at engaging her students and making learning interesting and memorable. In other ways she was a terrible teacher: having obvious favourites, involving the girls in her romantic and sexual relationships, her strange fantasies about Rose and the art teacher and worst of all encouraging a student to go fight for the fascists in Spain. Imagine if a teacher today encouraged a student to join ISIS or a neo-Nazi group or even fight in Ukraine for either side.
4. Jean Brodie admired Mussolini - in what way does this novel, set in the 1930s, and based on a real-life teacher, illustrate public opinion in the 1930s?
It illustrates that most people were anti-fascist, but some saw it as the solution to the high poverty and unemployment of the time. It's interesting that a single, white, career-minded woman like Miss. Brodie was so keen on fascism, given fascists would expect her to become the house wife she despised and birth lots of children, along with all the girls she considered the creme de la creme.
Girls of Slender Means is still my favourite Spark of those I've read. On re-reading The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for the first time in years I think the two books are very much related in the way they explore what makes someone decide to convert and join the religious life. Neither Sandy, who is gripping the bars and Nicholas who gets murdered, seem to have been particularly happy in the choice though.
I'll come back to the other questions shortly.
As a male, this is even more of a theoretical question. I think at that age being selected by a teacher would have been flattering. I doubt I would have been discerning enough to determine how dangerous Miss Brodie could be.
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
She could have been a good teacher. She knew that a dry as dust didactic style could be boring and stifling for students. Her lack of discretion, egocentrism and fascism were/are hardly the signs of a good teacher.
3. She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end. In what way does the book reflect Calvinism?
In essence, Miss Brodie chose the elect and tried to predestine their lives.
4. Jean Brodie admired Mussolini - in what way does this novel, set in the 1930s, and based on a real-life teacher, illustrate public opinion in the 1930s?
Many were seduced by fascism after the Great War. Liberal democracy, liberal internationalism and the League of Nations seemed to be failing. They wanted a Strongman to set things right.
I think I would have been on the outside looking in, and maybe a bit envious. However after the set had moved to the secondary section of the school I wonder how many other pupils would have been aware of their relationship with Mis Brodie.
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
Although she often talks about drawing her pupils out, she has quite decided ideas about things and obviously wants her pupils to agree with her views rather than challenge them. I once worked with someone who was adored by the pupils she worked with, but I wasn't sure she was doing them any good at all.
3. She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end. In what way does the book reflect Calvinism? I don't think I know enough about Calvinism to comment in detail but as @Caissa said she assumed she knew what her pupils would do, Rose becoming Teddy's lover for instance. The fact that she didn't shows up her flaws.
4. Jean Brodie admired Mussolini - in what way does this novel, set in the 1930s, and based on a real-life teacher, illustrate public opinion in the 1930s?
I guess at the time a lot of people admired Mussolini and what he was doing to Italy. Sandy wouldn't have been able to betray Miss Brodie in the way she did if public opinion hadn't started to shift.
5. This is Muriel Spark's best -known book. If you have read any others, is it your favourite?
I enjoyed reading it more this time than I did the previous times I read it. The first time I was more or less the age of the pupils in the book. I'd seen the film when it first came out and I guess I might have thought the book being different wasn't quite what I expected. As I've said before my favourite is Girls of Slender Means which I think is one of the best novels every written.
The fascist creed of scapegoating the alien among us (eg, the Jews or foreigners) was arguably played out in a micro version with Mary McGregor's being the one who was 'always to blame', as well as being always the stupid one. It's hard not to come to the conclusion that Mary was included in 'the Brodie set' by way of providing contrast; an object lesson in how not to be the creme de la creme. Therefore, a deliberate strategy of Brodie to keep before her girls how they were not to behave. One incident recalls how Mary - no guiltier than the rest in giggling during an art lesson - is singled out by Brodie to leave the room in disgrace, as nominally being the one who was responsible for the disruption. The author notes that when Mary leaves, the class settles down, feeling that with Mary gone so they have all somehow received pardon because the 'guilty' one has been punished and removed. Mary always accepts her injustices, and Brodie's constant references to her stupidness.
Even brilliant teachers may find they can't do much with their duller students, but what kind of a teacher is it who repeatedly picks on the one child who is known for her stupidity and unattractiveness, reinforcing the prejudices against the child, and even utilising them as a means of freeing the others from their own responsibility to self-assess, or develop understanding?
Brodie does seem to have great talent in inspiring followers and loyalty. And has an instinct ('I have both instinct and insight') of how to capture pliable, vulnerable minds and hook them in, should she wish to do so. She herself quotes the old adage of 'give me a girl of 7 or 10 and I will make her mine'. She wants to develop individualism in her girls, abhorring the 'team spirit'; but ironically also abhors the girls who display any sign of not being part of 'team' Brodie. Partly why, perhaps, she herself selects who that team will be. She needs the control. This developing of exclusive outside-school relationships with young children is a master-class of manipulation and the careful formation of a coterie, to be dedicated to her own ends. And this is needful, because she cannot or will not confide, as in intimately befriend - according to the author - to her fellow adult teachers at school. It seems Brodie requires the unformed, plastic minds of children to receive her insight and confidence, rather than the adult, and more challenging, response of her peers.
Just as Mussolini and Hitler were right to do what they needed to achieve their ends, so Brodie could justify her own means of achieving her ends. She would have been genuinely shocked at any accusation of hypocrisy, or even ambiguity eg, in her utilitarian use of the music master for sex, while 'denying' herself to the art master because she was 'dedicated' to her girls. In fact, she legitimizes her intimacy with Lowther by involving the girls in her visits to his home, making them witnesses to her 'innocence'; aware that information is being fed back to her headmistress. And her attempt at manipulating girls of 'her set' into relationships - regardless of their own welfare or the repercussions - is disturbing. Again descriptive of her own needs, than of anyone else's. Her own equivocations when she realizes that it is Sandy who is the art master's lover, and not Rose who 'is famous for sex', shows how shallow her guiding principles are in recognizing and assigning destinies for her acolytes.
She is a type of fascist leader herself perhaps. She is blind to her own vanity and faults, willing to sacrifice impartiality, kindness and the basic due of attending equally to all students under her care for the sake of a personal vision; a vision she herself does not fulfil. It was entirely consistent of her to advise Joyce Emily to go to the Civil War in Spain to fight. And even when the girl dies, Brodie's only regret is that Joyce Emily died in a train accident before having any opportunity to join the fighting. One feels Brodie would have rather exulted in having been able to boast about one of 'her' girls sacrificing her life, like a young Boadicea, fighting for freedom. Another fulfilment of her own unfulfilled fantasies.
Nevertheless, even the headmistress has to observe that the most intelligent students of the Marcia Blaine School for girls are those who were Miss Brodie's creme de la creme. So go figure.
1. If you had been a pupil at Marcia Blaine's, would you have wanted to be part of the Brodie Set?
In theory, I can see that the Brodie set had lots of opportunities that the other students didn't have, but I honestly think I wouldn't have liked Miss Brodie and she wouldn't have liked me, and it wouldn't have worked for me to be in her set. There is frequent mention of the Brodie set needing to live double lives, and they seem to have to pretend both with Miss Brodie (hiding their disapprovals or criticisms of her), and with the head teacher and other teachers (being careful what they say about Miss Brodie), and I've never been someone who could do this. I would have disagreed with Miss Brodie on things and I would have said so, and she doesn't tolerate this - she puts down anyone who has different views from her, and so they conform, at least externally, to her views. Her form of fascism is to act like anyone who thinks differently from her is inferior, to be scorned. This sort of thing already happens among schoolgirls, without a teacher to lead it, and I was never part of those groups.
2. Is Miss Brodie a good teacher?
To me a good teacher is one who encourages students to think for themselves, challenges them with logic and intelligent questions, and also models respect and kindness. Miss Brodie puts forward the idea that some people are superior and others inferior, and the superior ones will agree with her. She models shaming students and speaking scornfully behind their backs. She is therefore not at all my idea of a good teacher. She is, however a powerful and influential teacher. In the same way that a political leader can be powerful and influential but not good.
3. She thinks she is Providence, thought Sandy, she thinks she is the God of Calvin, she sees the beginning and the end. In what way does the book reflect Calvinism?
I did find it interesting how the novel talks about each character in terms of their whole life, rather than just in the moment - so the schoolkids are described in terms of what they will become, even, for some, in terms of how they will die.
4. Jean Brodie admired Mussolini - in what way does this novel, set in the 1930s, and based on a real-life teacher, illustrate public opinion in the 1930s?
It made me think of that film, Tea With Mussolini. But I don't know a great deal, outside of this, about public opinion in the 1930s. Miss Brodie also admires Hitler, and after the war she says that Hitler was 'rather naughty,' as if he were some mischievous schoolboy she admired who had gone a little bit too far in his mischief. I like to hope that most people had more awareness and more of a respect for human life than this, but I honestly don't know.
5. This is Muriel Spark's best -known book. If you have read any others, is it your favourite?
I don't think I have read any others of hers, though some of the titles are familiar, so I may own them.
Also now thinking of Dafyd's question: Was Sandy right to betray Miss Brodie?
I don't think I really saw this in terms of right or wrong. I was even not exactly sure how it was betrayal, as Miss Brodie seemed quite open in her views. The film seemed clearer, with the story a bit different, where Miss Brodie had clearly encouraged Mary McGregor to go to war, and Mary had died as a result, and Sandy was angry on her Mary's behalf (I think - it's also been a while since I watched the film). In the book it's a new student that no one really knows or cares about that Miss Brodie encourages to go to war, and Sandy's 'betrayal' doesn't really seem to be about that. She just, knowing that the head teacher wants to fire Miss Brodie, lets the headteacher know that she needs to base it on politics rather than sex, and specifically Miss Brodie's fascist views. Surely the head teacher could have figured this out for herself if she had been more on the ball - Sandy just gives her a tip because she's brighter than her.
Clearly Sandy was angry with Miss Brodie and wanted her to lose her job, as a personal vendetta rather than for wider political reasons, and it seems more related to sexual aspects, Teddy Lloyd, and Sandy's newfound desire for religious life, and Sandy feeling betrayed herself by Miss Brodie. I think I would have to reread it to understand more clearly. In terms of impact of her action, I'm not sure whether it really makes a lot of difference either way, as there will of course be other teachers who, like Sandy also finds in the Catholic church, are 'Fascists much less agreeable than Miss Brodie.' Teddy Lloyd would have been a more obvious choice to betray, in terms of behaviour, but the head teacher didn't have any reason to want to get rid of him, and that was a time when the girls would likely have been blamed for being sluts and he would have got away with it.