Are there The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie sparknotes?

Answer 1

At the conservative Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh, Scotland, boys on bikes speak to six girls who form the "Brodie set," a select group of pupils favored by Miss Brodie. Each of the girls belonging to this set is famous for something; Monica Douglas is famous for mathematics and for her anger, Rose Stanley is famous for sex, Eunice Gardner is famous for her gymnastics and glamorous swimming, Sandy Stranger is famous for her vowel sounds, Jenny Gray is famous for her beauty and grace, and Mary Macgregor is famous for being a silent lump whom everybody could blame. Joyce Emily Hammond, a rich transfer student who is rumored to be a delinquent, desires in vain to join the Brodie set. Miss Brodie invites her set to dinner, informing them that a new plot is underway to force her to resign; the girls are in Miss Brodie's confidence while staff members are not. After the outbreak of World War II, Mary joins the Wrens and eventually dies in a Cumberland hotel fire in 1943. On her tenth birthday, Sandy Stranger invites Jenny Gray to her home for tea. The girls resume their writing on a short story they have been composing that is based on Miss Brodie's tales about her lover, Hugh Carruthers, who died in World War I. Sandy spills ink on her blouse in the middle of one of Miss Brodie's lessons and must go to the Senior girls' science room to have it removed by Miss Lockhart.

In 1958, when Eunice is thirty-nine, she plans to visit Miss Brodie's grave. While speaking with her husband, she says that Miss Brodie was forced to retire as a result of being betrayed by one of her own girls. In 1931, Miss Brodie leads her eleven-year old students on a long walk through a segment of the country called Old Town. During this journey, Sandy realizes that the Brodie set constitutes a body of which Miss Brodie is the head. In a way, the girls serve as Miss Brodie's Fascisti. Miss Brodie defines education based on its roots; she says education is a leading out of what is already in a pupil's soul while intrusion is thrusting information into a pupil's head. Miss Brodie claims that her method of teaching is a leading out of knowledge while the method of Miss Mackay, the headmistress, is to thrust information. Miss Brodie has a meeting with the headmistress but is not worried because she believes her methods are not subversive. The girls are invited to tea at Miss Brodie's flat, but Sandy excuses herself from attending.

Nineteen thirty-one is described as the "most sexual year" for the Brodie set. During this year, both Mr. Teddy Lloyd, the Senior girls' art teacher, and Mr. Gordon Lowther, the school's singing master, vie for Miss Brodie's affection. Monica Douglas catches Mr. Lloyd kissing Miss Brodie in the art room; Miss Brodie and Mr. Lowther are absent from school for two weeks during which time they become lovers. A man exposes himself to Jenny while she is going for a walk alone; a policewoman later questions Jenny and earns the respect of both Jenny and Sandy. The following year, the girls move up to the senior school, and all enroll in the classical curriculum courses except for Mary, who does not have high enough marks and takes modern curriculum instead. The headmistress divides the girls into different houses and questions the girls in order to extract incriminating information about Miss Brodie. In the late spring of 1933, Miss Ellen and Miss Alison Kerr provide housekeeping services for Gordon Lowther. Rose begins sitting for Mr. Lloyd's portraits, and Miss Brodie is delighted at this news. In the summer, Miss Ellen and Miss Gaunt inform the headmistress about a nightdress, presumably belonging to Miss Brodie, which was found under the pillow on Gordon Lowther's bed.

Sandy thinks that all of Mr. Lloyd's paintings of Rose resemble Miss Brodie; Sandy looks at Mr. Lloyd with the "near-blackmailing insolence of her knowledge," and Mr. Lloyd subsequently kisses her and then insults her. Miss Brodie decides to confide completely in one of her girls and chooses Sandy as her confidante. By the summer of 1935, Miss Brodie remarks that all of her ambitions are for Sandy and Rose; she wants Rose to be Teddy Lloyd's lover because of her instinct and desires Sandy to be the informant of the affair because of her insight. After several months, Mr. Lowther becomes engaged to Miss Lockhart. At the age of seventeen, the girls continue to be questioned by the headmistress. The new girl, Joyce Emily Hammond, accepts Miss Brodie's political views and travels to Spain to participate in the war but is killed when her train is attacked. Sandy tells Miss Mackay that Miss Brodie is a fascist, resulting in her forced retirement. Miss Brodie never finds out which of her own girls betrayed her.

Answer 2

A major theme of the novel is victimization. Mary Macgregor is victimized by Miss Brodie and the rest of the set in the novel. Some critics have argued that Mary's death by fire parallels the cremation of Jews in the Holocaust. Mary becomes a scapegoat in part because she is labeled stupid, and the Nazi's first victims were those deemed "congenially feeble-minded." Spark narrates, "Along came Mary Macgregor, the last member of the set, whose fame rested on her being a silent lump, a nobody whom everybody could blame." In one scene, the art teacher Teddy Lloyd shows the girls Botticelli's Primaveraand a round of giggles ensue as he traces the figures in the painting. In response to their laughter, "Miss Brodie grasped Mary's arm, jerked her to her feet and propelled her to the door where she thrust her outside and shut her out, returning as one who had solved the whole problem. As indeed she had, for the violent action sobered the girls and made them feel that, in the official sense, an unwanted ringleader had been apprehended and they were no longer in the wrong." Miss Brodie seems to erroneously assume that Mary is the source of every problem. This fact is made even clearer when she blames Mary for having broken some of Mr. Lowther's china. "'Mary Macgregor must have chipped it,' she said. 'Mary was here last Sunday with Eunice and they washed up together. Mary must have chipped it.'" While the other girls in the Brodie set are characterized by some positive attribute, Mary is characterized by the ways in which other members of the group are encouraged and inclined to treat her. She is first characterized as stupid and lump-like and her role as scapegoat follows from those descriptions.

Answer 3

No.