of the story and immediately establishes the specific Public Gardens as part of the not-so specific town setting in France.

What I find interesting is that no one above truly deals with the setting of TIME in "Miss Brill," which is quite important.  Probably the least important aspect of non-specific timing is that it is set in daytime at a park.  This is important because Miss Brill enjoys looking at passersby and observing them closely.  However, the most important aspect of time is that "Miss Brill" is set in the 1920s in France.  Why is this significant?  Well, Miss Brill (the character) constantly has an ominous feeling.  Why?  It is a tumultuous time in Europe! It is after World War I and before World War II.  Quite literally, it's the time "between the wars" and Miss Brill feels it.  Miss Brill is a perfect example of the "Jazz Age" of the time period. Even though it doesn't mention the year here, you can feel the tension of the time in this quotation, further you can tell it is most likely early fall:

The air was motionless, but when you opened your  mouth there was just a faint chill, like a chill from a glass of iced water before you sip, and now and again a leaf came drifting--from nowhere, from the sky.  Miss Brill put  up her hand and touched her fur.

Therefore, as you can see, "Miss Brill" is set in Europe of the 1920's.  It is set "between the wars" where we can feel the tension as readers.  It is in France, as a result of the Public Gardens being proclaimed in the French language.  All-in-all, it is a perfect short story to teach setting!

Miss Brill, the main character of the eponymous story, is an expat, or expatriate teacher. This means that she is currently living somewhere other than her country, in this case, France. We know that she is originally from England and that she teaches English in Paris. We also know that she enjoys going to the public gardens, or Les Jardins Publiques, on Sundays to watch people. The public gardens would be then the main setting of the story. 

Although it was so brilliantly fine—the blue sky powdered with gold and great spots of lightlike white wine splashed over the Jardins Publiques

You could say that the Jardins Publiques are the equivalent to parks or assembly places where people go to spend time together. In Miss Brill we learn that in this place there is music playing, and that old and young couples alike enjoy spending their Sundays there. This contrasts a lot with Ms. Brill's lonely and solitary life, as well as with the sad fact that she resorts to build imaginary situations in her mind regarding everything that she sees. This accentuates the extent to which her loneliness actually affects her. 

The scene in which the majority of the story takes place is the Jardins Publiques, a public park in France. The day is "brilliantly fine" with a blue sky that is flecked with gold and "great spots of light" that the narrator likens to splashes of white wine. A live band plays while Miss Brill sits on her "'special'" bench (which she always occupies) and watches the wide variety of passers-by. It's a Sunday, and a great many people have come out to enjoy the music and the day. She notices, however, that most of the people sitting on the other benches are "odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even -- even cupboards!" Miss Brill notices the thin trees and the yellowed leaves, the sea in the distance, and the lovely sky, but she doesn't seem to notice that she is very similar to these old folks that she describes until a young couple sits next to her. The boy speaks disparagingly of her, calling her "old" and "stupid," and she soon gets up to go home.

The action of "Miss Brill" by Katherine Mansfield occurs when a beautifully dressed couple appears in the park. Until that time, Miss Brill has been thoroughly enjoying her Sunday walk in the park, as she usually does. She listens to the band and observes various passersby while wearing her beloved fur coat. 

Up until the appearance of the young couple, Miss Brill feels delighted in everything she sees, and she regards her walk in the park as a kind of play in which she plays a central role. She thinks, "No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the performance after all." As she deems herself central to the performance going on in the park, she leaves her house at the same time each day. She feels as though she is an actress on the stage and plays a critical role in the performance.

However, her illusion is shattered when the young couple appears on the scene during the part of the tale that represents the rising action of the story. They resent her presence, as they want to be alone. The boy refers to her "silly old mug," or face, and the girl compares Miss Brill's fur to a "fried whiting." When Miss Brill arrives home that evening, she does not stop at the bakery, as she usually does, and puts her fur away. As she does so, she hears "something crying." The callous remarks of the young couple have broken her enjoyment of the park and shaken her belief that she plays an important role in life. Instead, she feels shunted aside, and the reality of her life behind the illusion she has created sinks in.

The scene in Miss Brill is extremely important to the story. Every Sunday, Miss Brill goes to a nearby park to people watch. She is an extremely lonely woman, yet is completely unaware of how sad she is. She escapes the "dark little rooms or even-even [cupboard]" (Mansfield) in which she lives.

To escape her loneliness, she goes to the park and watches other people. The setting is important because it is her escape and also helps her avoid the reality of her life. She sits on a bench and watches all of the people, judging them. "Other people sat on the benches and green chairs, but they were nearly always the same, Sunday after Sunday...and yet there was something funny about nearly all of them" (Mansfield). She sees the same people in this park every week, yet mocks them for being there weekly, and even calls them "funny" (Mansfield). Eventually two younger people mock her for being odd herself.

Another part of the scene that is important is that as she watches people, she sees that most of the people are with someone else. They are mostly couples, and those who are alone she seems to look down upon even though she herself is alone. In this way, the setting further suggests her loneliness.

Finally, there is the music being played on a stage. Miss Brill suddenly decides that she is part of a larger play, and this excites her. She feels part of something, and even thinks that:

"They were all on the stage. They weren't only the audience, not only looking on; they were all acting. Even she had a part and came every Sunday. No doubt somebody would have noticed if she hadn't been there; she was part of the performance after all." (Mansfield)

The setting creates happiness in Miss Brill when she thinks that it's all a play and people would notice if she were missing, yet it seems nobody would notice if she weren't there. This shows how the setting supports the fact that she is truly lonely.

For more on Miss Brill, see the link.

While in one respect there is a separation of the settings of Miss Brill's little dark "cupboard" of a room and the public park, the Jardin Publique, there is also an intermingling of these scenes in the mind of Miss Brill that she initially fails to recognize until reality breaks her fantasy and the sad setting of her room overrides her impressionistic one. As the narrative opens, Miss Brill has left her room for the park, wearing her fur necklet, a small mink, perhaps, with "sad dark eyes." She is glad that she has worn it as there is a little chill in the air as she enters the park, her theatre of life, where she watches the interplay of people and lives vicariously through them. It is with setting that Mansfield's prose provides the reader with an objective view of where Miss Brill is, while at the same time it paints the subjective view of Miss Brill as she views her surroundings. 

As a voyeur, Miss Brill watches and listens at the concert to those who have also come to the park for the concert. And while she sits in her "special" seat, Miss Brill experiences impressions of sound and sight: 

He [the conductor] scraped with his foot and flapped his arms like a rooster about to crow...the bandsmen ...blew out their cheeks and glared at the music. Now there came a little "flutey" bit--very pretty!--a little chain of bright drops.

Ironically, as she watches the old couple sitting near her, Miss Brill is annoyed with their petty conversation and their stillness. That she does not perceive herself objectively becomes evident when Miss Brill watches these and other older people:

They were odd, silent, nearly all old, and from the way they stared they looked as though they'd just come from dark little rooms or even--even cupboards!

An impressionistic picture of old age is then presented as Miss Brill looks behind the rotunda at the

slender trees with yellow leaves down drooping, and through them just a line of sea, and beyond the blue sky with gold-veined clouds.

Miss Brill watches other people: a woman with "an ermine toque" and a gentleman in gray, who cruelly blows smoke from his cigarette into her face.  To Miss Brill the drum beat sounds, "The Brute! the Brute!" Even though she feels a slight chill to the air, Miss Brill is not prepared for what happens to her. Just at the moment her eyes fill with tears over the music that is so beautiful, so moving, and she feels as though the "other members of the company" understand, "though what they understood she didn't know," a boy and girl sit where the old couple have been. Miss Brill imagines that this beautifully dressed couple are "a hero and a heroine, just arrived from his father's yacht," an impression that shapes itself into a shocking reality. For as they sit on the bench and see Miss Brill, "still soundlessly singing, still with that trembling smile," who turns to listen to them, the boy angrily whispers,

"Why does she come here at all--who wants her? Why doesn't she keep her silly old mug at home."

Her subjective view is shattered, and Miss Brill hurries home, not stopping at the bakery as is her custom on Sunday. In her "little dark room like a cupboard," she sits for a long time until she finally puts away the necklet. Confined now in her isolation and exile, Miss Brill feels no more the promise of the Sunday concerts, but only her terrible alienation. As she replaces the lid on the box, she imagines that "she hears something crying" when it is herself. The petty, confining, alienated life is all that Miss Brill now has as the magic and personal impressions of the setting of the Jardin Publique are lost.