We can also see the way Miss Brill thinks of the world around her as evidence of the way she conceives of herself. She doesn't see herself as isolated and alone, especially because she can "[sit] in other people's lives [...] while they talked round her" at the park.
In fact, the first paragraph, with its cheerful imagery -- "light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques" -- shows us Miss Brill's idealism...
We can also see the way Miss Brill thinks of the world around her as evidence of the way she conceives of herself. She doesn't see herself as isolated and alone, especially because she can "[sit] in other people's lives [...] while they talked round her" at the park.
In fact, the first paragraph, with its cheerful imagery -- "light like white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques" -- shows us Miss Brill's idealism and attitude toward life. The narrator's description of her fox fur as covered in moth-powder and wondering, "'What has been happening to me?'" seems sad, but Miss Brill is happy to see its "dim little eyes" that she's rubbed back to life, and they seem to "snap at her" in a rather playful way. She imagines the dead fox as a "Little rogue!" Thus, it seems to be somewhat symbolic of herself. Although it seems a bit musty (and it is actually a dead thing), she doesn't notice its age or condition as a major setback; she imagines it to be, still, full of life and spirit and vigor. This is how she sees herself until the rude young man insults her. We know that she has realized her true situation in the end, then, when she believes the fox to be crying as she tucks it back into its box, just as she has been tucked back into hers.
Thus, all of her early idealism and romanticism fades quickly when she understands how she is seen by others. In the beginning, she is full of hope and cheer, and, in the end, she is saddened by the knowledge that she is as old and unimportant as the other elderly people at the park with nothing better to do.
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