The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

This book is full of the delightfully witty statements of Miss Jean Brodie to her students, showing her charisma and ability to stir up wonder as a teacher:

"Here is my tram car. I daresay I'll not get a seat. This is nineteen-thirty-six. The age of chivalry is past."

"Miss Mackay retains him on the wall [in a poster form] because she believes in the slogan 'Safety First.' But Safety does not come first. Goodness, Truth and Beauty come first."

"John Stuart Mill used to rise at dawn to learn Greek at the age of five, and what John Stuart Mill could do as an infant at dawn, I too can do on a Saturday afternoon in my prime."

Muriel Spark's, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a novel about self-discovery--Miss Jean Brodie is discovering herself and entering into her prime as she teaches 11- and 12-year-old girls. At the same time, the girls are catching their first whiffs of sex and life. Miss Jean Brodie teaches them according to her own unique curriculum, emphasizing above all else a sense of wonder and passion. In Curriculum Vitae, Spark writes of the inspiration for Miss Jean Brodie in Spark's own teacher. It is possible, also, to see (at least aspects of) Spark in Sandy, the narrator and a favored student of Miss Jean Brodie.

This novel interested me immensely in its treatment of the teacher/student relationship, Calvinism/Catholicism, women, and politics. I'm always creeped out though, by treatments of sexuality in children's literature; while this doesn't seem to be written for children, it is told from an 11- to 15-year-old's perspective (Sandy ages in the course of the novel).

The novel includes something that's also present in Spark's The Finishing School--a play with narrative order. The narrator, Sandy, interrupts the flow of the novel with insight into events that happen later, and with descriptions of Miss Jean Brodie from the future, when she is no longer in her prime. The whole narrative is told in light of the betrayal of Miss Brodie by one of her students. We proceed to learn which student betrayed her teacher, and why this student views her betrayal as not a betrayal at all (look at me not giving away the ending!); we also see Sandy's later critique of Miss Brodie.

The novel considers the influence on Miss Brodie of Edinburghian Calvinism, which she then rejects, deciding that she and her prize students are above the rules. Spark hints that Catholicism might have been able to reign her in. Miss Brodie's removal from the rules corresponds to her politics--she praises Hitler and Mussolini and Franco. She is drawn in by their own status above the rules, as well as by their rhetoric and idealism. Her romances continue these themes--she falls in love with a married (Catholic) man, a painter; she settles for a while for an affair with a (Calvinist) singer. She refuses him marriage, however, seeking instead to encourage his appetites.

Sandy's critique of Miss Brodie is that she attempts to make her students into her own image. Instead of praising their unique gifts and educating them to surpass her, Miss Brodie seeks to control them (Spark writes, as if she were the God of Calvinism). They ultimately refuse this control, exerting their free will instead.

One word about the title: Spark writes throughout the novel that Miss Jean Brodie declares herself to be in her prime. In her prime, Miss Brodie is educating the girls in her set, teaching them what they need to know as they move into their prime. Later, we see Miss Brodie when she's past her prime, older and worried, no longer full of confidence and courage and exuding sexuality. I don't know exactly what to make of this. Perhaps it highlights the impossibility of maintaining a position outside of common moral rules. Like Miss Brodie, Franco, Mussolini, and Hitler peak in their popularity and decline.

I suppose my response to this book is the response that I have to many of Sparks novels--they all treat things that fascinate me. Spark is subtle and complicated. Her position is never on the surface. But they're really just a little darker than I like.


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