Miss Brodie herself is a fascist. She admires Mussolini, and when she visits Nazi Germany in 1938, she approves of what Hitler has done. She calls her chosen students, known as the "Brodie set," the "creme de la creme," as if they were a sort of master race (though they are not), and she feels can mold them in her own image, much as the fascists wanted to mold young people in their own image. Her fascism is significant because it is her undoing. Miss Brodie has been clashing with the head of the school, Miss McKay, for some time, but when one of Miss Brodie's 'set' betrays her as a fascist, that then becomes a pretext for getting rid of her. The novel captures the spirit of a time period, the 1930s, and the dangers (and sometimes the seductiveness) of fascism.
No comments:
Post a Comment