The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

“‘When there is no vision,’ Miss Brodie had assured them, ‘the people perish. Eunice, come and do a somersault in order that we may have comic relief.’”

This is one of the first instances in which Miss Brodie speaks, and she uses some significant words. She addresses vision as a theme but uses it in a different context: rather than referring to physical sight, she refers to having ideas about the future. Her use of “the people” is also notable, as it is a phrase political leaders often use to talk about their followers. Finally, her demand that Eunice provide comic relief suggests that she sees the girls as tools that can help her achieve her goals rather than individual people with their own autonomy.

“You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”

Here, Miss Brodie describes the idea of one’s “prime” in notably vague terms, suggesting that everyone’s prime is distinct, and the only unifying thread is that it necessitates living life fully. Keeping the concept ambiguous is ultimately a way for her to continually redefine her own prime in whatever terms she chooses.

“Mr. Lloyd had a baby last week. He must have committed sex with his wife.”

The language 10-year-old Sandy and Jenny use to talk about sex here reflects their awkward childhood fascination with it, tinged with shame, as seen in the word “committed.” It also foregrounds the text’s larger interest in effective language and speech, a theme that will be related to sex throughout the novel, particularly as Sandy and Jenny write their fictionalized version of Miss Brodie’s love story.

“Sandy was never bored, but she had to lead a double life of her own in order never be bored.”

This sentence introduces Sandy’s imaginative interaction with the Lady of Shalott and emphasizes The Interplay of Imagination and Reality as a major theme. It also redefines the notion of a “double life” as something that is not necessarily negative, suggesting that storytelling can be used as a productive escape from otherwise stressful life circumstances.

“Sandy, on that occasion, had the presence of mind to remember that her schooldays were supposed to be the happiest days of her life and she took the compelling news back to Jenny that the Senior School was going to be marvellous and Miss Lockhart was beautiful.”

This quote recalls the chapter’s earlier description of Mary’s death—which was preceded by her realization that her time with Miss Brodie had been the happiest of her life—thus contrasting Mary and Sandy. It also introduces the theme of the marvelous being hidden in the mundane, an idea that adult Sandy will return to when she titles her treatise “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace.” Here, Sandy sees a place as common as a science lab as potentially containing something extraordinary.

“Miss Brodie had already selected her favourites, or rather those whom she could trust; or rather those whose parents she could trust not to lodge complaints about the more advanced and seditious aspects of her educational policy, these parents being either too enlightened to complain or too unenlightened, or too awed by their good fortune in getting their girls’ education at endowed rates, or too trusting to question the value of what their daughters were learning at this school of sound reputation.”

In this lengthy sentence, the novel introduces Miss Brodie’s approach to choosing her favorites—an approach that has more to do with her own self-protective instinct then with the girls’ academic merit. The repeated phrase “or rather” emphasizes the distance between Miss Brodie’s stated values and her actual motives. The use of “seditious” in this sentence is also significant, as it suggests that Miss Brodie is aware she might be doing something inappropriate or dangerous with her special set.

“But she wasn’t mad. She was as sane as anything. She knew exactly what she was doing.”

Here, an adult Eunice tells her husband that Miss Brodie—far from being mentally ill and thus not responsible for her actions—was fully aware of her powerful influence on the girls.

“Sandy looked back at her companions, and understood them as a body with Miss Brodie for the head.”

In a sudden moment of understanding, Sandy sees the structure of Miss Brodie’s special set exactly the way Miss Brodie intended for it to function, aware that she and the others are not meant to be individuals with agency but rather are meant to only support Miss Brodie’s aims. The figurative language in which their group is reimagined as a body has political undertones, recalling the notion of the “body politic” as formulated by philosopher Thomas Hobbes.

“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.”

Here, Miss Brodie shows the girls a photograph of Mussolini’s fascisti marching in Rome. The comparison of Mussolini to a teacher or Girl Guide mistress is especially important, as it blurs the lines between Miss Brodie and the dictator, suggesting that a leader who seems loving and benevolent might be corrupt and hateful.

“And many times throughout her life Sandy knew with a shock, when speaking to people whose childhoods had been in Edinburgh, that there were other people’s Edinburghs quite different from hers, and with which she held only the names of districts and streets and monuments in common.”

This quote follows the Brodie set’s witnessing of a strange, violent confrontation on their walk to Old Town, and it expresses the fluid, evolving ways characters may or may not identify with geographical and cultural landscapes, even those in which they grew up.

“The word ‘education’ comes from the root e from ex, and duco, I lead. It means leading out. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil’s soul.”

Here, Miss Brodie clarifies how she sees her own role in her students’ lives, emphasizing her self-identification as a leader—with all its attendant political implications—and minimizing her responsibility in actually presenting her students with any information. It also highlights her interest in education as something related to the soul, connecting the novel’s interest in education to its interest in spirituality.

“As for impropriety, it could never be imputed to me except by some gross distortion on the part of a traitor.”

Here, the novel foreshadows Sandy’s betrayal of Miss Brodie. It also draws attention to Miss Brodie’s paranoia by suggesting that she has imagined this event taking place at least once.

“And so, seen in this light, there was nothing outwardly odd about Miss Brodie. Inwardly was a different matter and it remained to be seen, towards what extremities her nature worked her.”

This quote emphasizes the fact that Miss Brodie seems on the surface like any other independent, educated, working woman in Edinburgh while being very different beneath the surface. The word “extremities” is significant, as it foreshadows the extreme—and still concealed—violence of her nature that will not be apparent until Joyce Emily’s death.

“Qualifying examination or no qualifying examination, you will have the benefit of my experiences in Italy.”

Here, Miss Brodie openly disregards the necessity of preparing the students for their exams and prioritizes telling them about her recent trip to Italy. Importantly, this sentence follows her praise of Mussolini, thus suggesting that in her mind, this “benefit” is learning about Italy’s fascist government.

“The girls, anxious to be of cultured and sexless antecedents, were instantly composed by the shock of this remark.”

Miss Brodie has just accused the girls of being uncultured because they laughed at naked bodies in Italian paintings. This quote reveals how closely Miss Brodie—and by extension, her set—connects intellectualism and sexlessness. This is ironic given that Miss Brodie has at least one casual sexual relationship, and her implication that the girls should ignore sex while she indulges in it points to the very different set of standards to which she holds them.

“‘Good mawning,’ she replied, in the corridors, flattening their scorn beneath the chariot wheels of her superiority, and deviating her head towards them no more than an insulting half-inch.”

Here, Miss Brodie responds with dignity to the other teachers’ insulting tone when they say good morning by keeping her head up. This echoes her order to the girls that they always walk with their heads held high; it also recalls the photograph of the fascisti marching stiffly through Rome. The use of “chariot wheels” as a metaphor further connects Miss Brodie to Roman history and Italian culture.

“This was her last year in the world and in another sense it was Sandy’s.”

In this flash forward, Miss Brodie is dying of cancer, and Sandy is about to go into the convent. By paralleling these two experiences, the novel emphasizes that Sandy and Miss Brodie are simultaneously different and similar.

“It was impossible to imagine Miss Brodie sleeping with Mr. Lowther, it was impossible to imagine her in a sexual context at all, and yet it was impossible not to suspect that such things were so.”

This quote emphasizes the persistently complicated dynamic between sex and what it means to be educated or cultured, with the girls unable to see their teacher as a sexual being. It also demonstrates that the girls’ ideas about both sex and Miss Brodie are changing as they mature.

“You must all grow up to be dedicated women as I have dedicated myself to you.”

Here, Miss Brodie uses language of sacrifice and devotion—language the novel will ultimately connect to religious martyrdom—as part of her self-identification. This word choice will be useful later when she envisions herself as the victim of a betrayal.

“As she turned, Miss Brodie put her arm around Rose’s shoulder and thanked Mr. Lloyd for his help, as if she and Rose were one.”

This is the first clear indication that Miss Brodie will use the girls as pawns in her own sexual and political game with Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Lowther. It also reveals that she sees herself as inherently similar to Rose, who she predicts will be a great lover.

“Sandy was fascinated by this method of making patterns with facts, and was divided between her admiration for the technique and the pressing need to prove Miss Brodie guilty for misconduct.”

Even as Sandy finds herself growing suspicious of Miss Brodie, she cannot shake her love and admiration for her. This underscores the fundamental connection between them. This quote also highlights Sandy’s love for storytelling, suggesting that even when it is meant to harm her, she is fascinated by imaginative narratives.

“The side-effects of this condition were exhilarating to her special girls in that they in some way partook of the general absolution she had assumed to herself, and it was only in retrospect that they could see Miss Brodie’s affair with Mr. Lowther for what it was, that is to say, in a factual light.”

Here, the novel describes Miss Brodie’s inability to feel guilty for any of her actions and her firm belief that God is always on her side. This quote, which clarifies that the girls’ perspective on Miss Brodie changed dramatically as they got older, highlights the strength of her influence over them: it was so profound that they adopted the same moral and ethical postures she did without even realizing it.

“Sandy thought this might be an attempt to keep the Brodie set together at the expense of the newly glimpsed individuality of its members. She turned on him in her new manner of sudden irritability and said, ‘We’d look like one big Miss Brodie, I suppose.’”

In this quote, Sandy reacts to Teddy Lloyd’s portraits of the Brodie set—all of which look like Miss Brodie—and his desire to paint all the girls together. Her word choice echoes the description early in the novel of Miss Brodie as the head and the girls as body parts meant only to obey her wishes; in other words, her wording suggests that no matter how hard they may try, the girls will never fully separate themselves from Miss Brodie, even in artistically rendered, highly subjective visual images.