Which scene in 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie' reveals a central theme or idea?
The movie The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie was based on Muriel Spark's novel of the same name. Award winning actress Maggie Smith played the title role and won an Academy Award for her exquisitely sensitive portrayal of a maverick teacher at an expensive boarding school for girls in Scotland. Indeed the eccentric ideas presented by Miss Brodie to her students represent one of the key themes of the novel which is change, particularly subversive change and we can see an example of the type of fear this would engender within the traditional and backward-looking eschelons of society in the scene where Miss Brodie is confronted in the office of the terrified headteacher. Miss McKay is panicking in this scene about the potential danger Miss Brodie represents to the girls and to society with her wild ideas and attitudes. Jean Brodie encourages the girls to consider themselves "the creme de la creme" of society and seems to have radical views including those on feminism and the liberation of the self. She exhorts the girls to follow their hearts rather than their boring but dutiful heads and to hold on to the wild ideals and dreams of youth. The era after the second world war was full of fast-paced change which upset many traditionalists who began to fear new ideas such as communism; McCarthyism held sway. Miss McKay may suspect that Jean harbors a fancy for terrifying figures such as Mussolini and Franco, not to mention the shocking new sexual freedoms inspired by Freud. In the Office Scene we see an example of the subversive tendencies of Jean Brodie. A triumphant but neurotic Miss McKay uses a risque romantic letter purportedly written by Jean's students as grounds for dismissal. Jean Brodie artfully, correctly and provocatively asks the head if the letter was addressed to her (the head) and politely calls her out on a number of points. She speaks frankly and shockingly about adolescence and female sexuality, illustrating the new ideas about psychology and healthy emotional sexual well being. She then challenges the old submissive order of near serfdom by threatening Miss McKay and the school with her new rights under the law, saying she will sue. She seems to believe that the removal of her job would constitute unfair dismissal. Sadly Miss Brodie's own uninhibited style and passions are not well regulated and she is not a paragon of discretion so she does eventually lose her job, but this scene illustrates the end of the old order of the treatment of youth and new ideas, and the beginning of the new.
What is the main theme of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie?
One could probably attribute many different and interesting themes to The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, including themes of sexuality, religion and authority. Probably the most striking theme, however, is the theme of education, which could also be linked to authority—specifically, the problems that can be caused by a teacher imparting their own unfiltered ideas on students.
In the novel, the teacher, Miss Brodie, tells her pupils that she is "putting old heads on your young shoulders," meaning that she is helping them to come out of themselves and explore who they are as people. In this respect, she rejects any science-based subjects and instead insists on teaching them subjects she thinks they will need to improve themselves and live their lives, such as politics and poetry.
The problem is not only what she teaches them, but that her students are only ten years old. As the story will later suggest, they have yet to learn anything about the world and are far too impressionable to hear about fascism and sex. One of the girls, Sandy, who follows Miss Brodie's advice and has sex with Mr. Lloyd, eventually betrays Miss Brodie and becomes a nun.
Describe one scene in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie that reveals the film's theme.
Throughout Ronald Neame’s 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, the teacher of the title tries her best to shape young female students at a private girls’ school. In many respects, Jean Brodie is a free thinker who resists the authority of the school’s administrators. Her streak of rugged independence includes having sexual relationships with one of the school’s male teachers. The girls that Jean Brodie draws close to her are dubbed the “Brodie set.” Miss Brodie considers them the school’s elite, or as she puts it, “the crème de la crème.” While some of them are among the brightest students, others are insecure and lonely.
The film—like Muriel Spark’s novel, upon which it is based—takes place in the early 1930s, as fascism was making inroads into the politics and governments of numerous European countries. As a counterpoint to Brodie’s rule-breaking side, she revels in the strong influence she exerts over the impressionable girls. She flatly states, “Give me a girl at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.” She expects the students to learn not only about English but about life. Two closely related traits that she has are an exaggerated regard for decisive, charismatic figures—including Mussolini—and an obsession with personal loyalty.
Sandy is one a strong-minded student whom Brodie tries to manipulate but with limited success. In contrast, Mary is docile and eager to please. The differences between them become strongly pronounced as Sandy goes behind her teacher’s back and has a relationship another teacher. Mary, swayed by Brodie’s romantic depiction of Generalissimo Franco, decides to join his forces in the Spanish Civil War.
Sandy’s rejection of Brodie becomes complete near the film’s end. She learns that Mary has died in Spain when her train was attacked. Confronting her former teacher about this tragic death, Sandy explains that Mary’s brother, whom she had planned to join, was fighting against—not for—Franco. Ironically, Brodie had been right: Mary was hers for life. Sandy, however, makes it clear that she will never follow in Brodie’s footsteps. In fact, she has turned her in to the administration for advocating fascism.
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