two school years.

Chapter 1 flashes back to 1931 to show readers the key events that shaped the set in these two years, but not before very swiftly flashing ahead and revealing Mary dies in a hotel fire at the age of 24. This style of writing that is not temporal remains throughout the novel.

Outside of the set, Miss Brodie is not well-liked within Marcia Blaine; by extension, neither is the set. One can surmise that the set for their lack of team spirit and commonalities are only friends because Miss Brodie took a special liking to them. Miss Brodie's enemy is the Headmistress, Miss Mackay, who refers to Miss Brodie's method of teaching as "irrelevant to the authorized curriculum…and useless to the school as a school." Marcia Blaine is a Catholic school in Edinburgh that is preoccupied with proprietary.

The founder of the school was a severe woman. A Bible is kept in the great hall under a portrait of her with the following passage underlined, "Oh, where shall I find a virtuous woman, for her price is above rubies?" At Marcia Blaine, virtue, or at least the appearance of it, comes before all else.

Miss Brodie is neither virtuous nor orthodox enough for Miss Mackay nor other faculty members. Her peculiar teaching methods always have her on the brink of getting fired. She teaches about fascists like Stalin and Mussolini, but she also teaches art, love, how there is more to religion than Catholicism, and so on. One of the most important lessons to Miss Brodie is this one that she is always pounding into the minds of her girls: "One's prime is the moment one was born for." This elusive prime becomes a tantalizing entity that her girls are always hoping to discover.

The concept of a prime is almost synonymous with being the "crème de la crème," something that she promises to make all her girls. It is this promise of a "prime" and there being more to life that intrigues the girls. She teaches subjects that proper ten-year-old girls in 1930s Edinburgh didn't need to know.

Chapter 2

Chapter two gets into the psyche of the core characters of the novel. Readers are made aware of the thin line between being a child and a teenager. Due to her over-sharing about her love that died in WWI, Hugh Carruthers, and other lovers, the set is preoccupied with the ideas of sex and love. The girls know it happens, but they don't understand the mechanics behind it. They write elaborate romantic stories of Carruthers and Miss Brodie being together. Conversely, they still believe it's possible to dig a hole in Australia, and they think sex is inherently immoral and dirty. The juxtaposition of all these different things shows how confusing being young is.

Mary's destiny for a sad, aimless life becomes apparent in this chapter. Before she dies at 24, she realizes that the only time she was ever happy in her short, miserable life was when she was under the tutelage of Miss Brodie. Unlike Miss Brodie, Mary does not have many loves. Before Mary dies, she only has one inconsequential boyfriend of two weeks. While on leave from the Women's Royal Navy Service, she was in a hotel fire. The smoke prevents her from seeing an exit, and the noise prevents her from hearing people screaming at the exit. She eventually passes out after having walked back and forth in the hallways. Even in her death, her stupidity was her driving force.

While Mary thinks of her happiness and Miss Brodie retrospectively, Sandy shows an uncanny level of awareness for a ten-year-old and spends much of her youth pondering how Miss Brodie and the set function individually and collectively. She realizes at the age of ten that she should be happier than she ever has or will be. But she doesn't know what that type of happiness means.

In her talks with Jenny, they decide that their parents traded in their elusive prime for sex. When they consider the fact that a teacher, Mr. Lloyd, just had a baby, they conclude that he has "committed sex." This language shows that the young girls are deeply uncomfortable with the process of sex. Sandy insists that she doesn't think she will ever want to have sex, and Jenny agrees. A flash-forward reveals that Sandy becomes a nun, Sister Helena. While the details of when and why are not made in this chapter, one can assume that her aversion to sex leads her to a life in the Convent.

Sandy draws parallels between Miss Brodie and the fascists she likes to teach about. Miss Brodie is the "head," and the girls are the "body" or "marching soldiers" who follow her lead. Sandy realizes that she and the other girls aren't very nice to Mary because Miss Brodie isn't friendly to Mary. Miss Brodie says Sandy will never be "elite or the crème de la crème," which likely plays no insignificant role in her becoming a nun. Brodie is her most significant influence.

Sandy has peculiarities about her, though, that make her different from just one of Miss Brodie's soldiers. She has no interest in romance and believes taking off one's clothes is rude and believes that if one actually thought about having sex, then no one would go through with it. Sandy feels drawn to the senior science teacher, Miss Lockhart, and she and Rose regularly get sent to her to have her get stains out of their clothes.

Sandy conceptualizes Edinburgh differently than the other girls, perhaps because her family isn't from there. Readers don't know how she thinks of it differently, just that she does. That indicates how she sees everyone around her, different from how they or most other people see themselves.

The crux of chapter 2 is about showing Miss Brodie's peculiarities. The school sees her as an "Edinburgh spinster of the deepest dye." At this time, being a spinster was enough to have one ostracized. Readers also get to see more of her teaching techniques. She has a flair for the dramatics, yet she tells the set they must always keep their composure even under extreme distress. She says things like if she had gotten the set at the age of seven, she could have gotten them on the right track, but ten is much too late. This behavior instills a desire in the set to prove her wrong, and maybe she knows this.

Miss Brodie believes education is about "leading out knowledge" and not "putting it in," as Miss Mackay likes. This methodology and the talk of a prime are reoccurring throughout the novel. Miss Brodie believes that the importance of curriculum goes in the order of art, religion, philosophy, and science. This is why most of the teachers don't like her. Mm

The chapter concludes with the set getting on the train with Miss Brodie to her house. The set sees the unemployed, and Miss Brodie tells them to "ray for the unemployed" and that Italy doesn't have unemployed.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 suggests that during the nineteen-thirties, there were many women like Miss Brodie who were in their prime. These women included feminists who interacted with men on an equal footing, progressive women who were involved in social welfare and art, and aides who supported the Scottish Nationalist Movement. There were lots of women like Miss Brodie who were proponents of birth control and thought, "Birth control is the only option for the working class."

However, what distinguishes Miss Brodie from others is that she is not a typical schoolteacher who is usually more organized. Furthermore, Miss Brodie stands out because she has confidence in her ability to evolve and adapt, particularly when faced with ethical predicaments.

In 1931, a year into Miss Brodie's prime, the girls in her set are highly preoccupied with sex. Miss Brodie talks about her trip to London and Italy, praising Mussolini, while Miss Mackay enters the classroom and encourages the girls. This is a trick of Miss Mackay's to get the set to divulge Miss Brodie's teaching methods, subsequently getting her in trouble.

Miss Brodie emphasizes again that education involves leading out, mocks Mary for not knowing the meaning of "nasally," and boasts about her experiences, including seeing the Coliseum in Rome. She also distributes apples from Mr. Lowther's orchard but neglects to teach history, the designated subject.

Colleagues at the Junior school turn against Miss Brodie, except for Mr. Lowther (music teacher) and Mr. Lloyd (art teacher), who are infatuated with her. The girls notice the romantic interest, especially during an art lesson when Mr. Lloyd's behavior becomes a subject of laughter. Later, Monica claims to have seen Miss Brodie and Mr. Lloyd kiss, sparking skepticism among the girls.

Sandy, suspecting a love affair, discusses with Jenny the possibility of Miss Brodie's involvement with Mr. Lowther. Eunice's religious turn interrupts their conversation. In the 1940s, Miss Brodie reveals her affair with Mr. Lowther to Sandy during a meal. The narrative hints at a betrayal within the Brodie set.

In 1931, Miss Brodie returns after a brief absence, prompting Miss Mackay to invite three girls for tea to extract information about Miss Brodie. The girls, influenced by Miss Brodie, choose the Classical side for their years at the Senior school. Jenny faces an incident by the Water of Leith where a strange man shows his genitals. The girls begin weaving fictional love correspondence between Miss Brodie and Mr. Lowther.

As Sandy and Jenny keep the Water of Leith incident secret, they speculate about Rose's maturity. Miss Brodie, attempting to endear herself, shares anecdotes under an elm tree. Sandy appreciates Miss Brodie's narrative skill but also feels a need to prove her misconduct. During a vacation in Crail, Sandy and Jenny complete their fictionalized love correspondence and decide to bury it.

In the end, Sandy and Jenny, having buried the letters, return to Crail with plans and joy.

Chapters 4, 5, & 6

In Chapter 4, the narrative delves deeper into the Senior school experiences of Miss Brodie's girls, marking a significant shift in their academic and social milieu. The initial allure of Senior life, characterized by amiable teachers and captivating new subjects like geometry and Greek, gradually wanes. Initially enthralled by the novelty, the girls find themselves confronted with the reality of Senior school, and the initial excitement fades as the "party-game effect of that first week" diminishes.

A retrospective scene unfolds years later, with Rose expressing remorse during a visit to Sandy at the Convent. She regrets not being kinder to Mary, hinting at a betrayal that adds an undercurrent of tension to the narrative. The story revisits a pivotal moment at the Braid Hills Hotel, where Miss Brodie contemplates the possibility of Mary's betrayal, expressing a regretful acknowledgment that she should have been kinder to her.

The chapter also explores the Brodie set's evolving dynamics, which face cohesion challenges. Miss Brodie's diminishing presence and Miss Mackay's attempts to disrupt the group contribute to the potential unraveling of their identity. Miss Mackay introduces schemes to break the girls apart, including assigning them to different houses at the Senior school to foster competition. However, the set, instilled with a sense of individualism by Miss Brodie, resists the intended effects of these schemes.

Miss Brodie continues to exert influence during this period, hosting tea sessions for her set on most Saturdays. She imparts a sense of exclusivity to her girls by downplaying the potential of her new pupils. Meanwhile, discussions about their art teacher, Teddy Lloyd, reveal an incident where he reacted negatively to the relaxed behavior of the girls. Miss Brodie's interest is piqued, especially when informed about Mr. Lloyd's admiration for Rose Stanley's profile, adding a layer of intrigue to the unfolding narrative.

At this point, the set assumes Miss Brodie is sleeping with Mr. Lowther to get over her love for Mr. Lloyd, who is married and unattainable. Miss Brodie begins grooming Rose to have a sexual affair with Mr. Lloyd when she is older. Mr. Lloyd paints a portrait of Rose and then all of the girls in the set.

Chapter 5 begins at the age of fifteen; Sandy finds herself in Mr. Lloyd's studio, where he has just completed a portrait of Rose Stanley wearing her gym tunic. Interestingly, Rose's face in the portrait bears a striking resemblance to Miss Brodie.

Mrs. Deirdre Lloyd (Mr. Lloyd's wife), who is present and dressed in fashionable peasant attire, urges her husband to show Sandy another portrait called "Red Velvet." This portrait depicts Sandy wrapped in crimson velvet, giving her the appearance of having one arm and a more mature physique than in real life. Sandy is surprised to learn that Mr. Lloyd has also painted Monica Douglas and Eunice Gardiner, and these portraits resemble Miss Brodie, unlike his other works.

Sandy begins to think that the set might break up, which she considers a positive outcome. However, while they are still together in the studio, Mr. Lloyd confides in Sandy his desire to paint all the Brodie girls individually and then as a group. Sandy sees this as an attempt to maintain the girls' unity despite their emerging individuality. In response, she sarcastically remarks that they would all look like one big Miss Brodie and stares insolently at Mr. Lloyd. He laughs, sloppily kisses her, and as she tries to leave the studio, he tells her how hideous she is.

Sandy follows Mr. Lloyd downstairs, spending most of her tea trying to make sense of her conflicting feelings about the kiss and insult. Mr. Lloyd then asks Sandy about Miss Brodie's relationship with Mr. Lowther, questioning what she sees in him. Sandy curtly replies that he sings to her. Mrs. Lloyd laughs and comments that Miss Brodie seems a bit unusual. Mr. Lloyd defends Miss Brodie and leaves the room, and Sandy also excuses herself.

The narrative then shifts back to when Miss Ellen Kerr discovers what she believes to be Miss Brodie's nightdress in Mr. Lowther's house. Over the past two years, Mr. Lowther has been considering marrying either of the Kerr sisters because Miss Brodie consistently refuses to marry him. Instead, she only engages in intimate relations with him and cooks for him. Mr. Lowther worries that Miss Brodie prefers Mr. Lloyd's long legs to his short ones.

Miss Brodie shares most of this information with her girls as they age but without explicitly stating or hinting at her involvement with Mr. Lowther. She is still determining which girls she can trust and wants to avoid arousing any suspicions from their parents. However, she finds in Sandy a girl worthy of her complete trust.

In the autumn of 1935, while playing golf together, Miss Brodie reveals to Sandy that she has high ambitions for her and Rose. She asks Sandy if she thinks Jenny is becoming dull, and Sandy agrees. Miss Brodie criticizes all the Brodie girls except for Sandy and Rose. Meanwhile, Sandy recalls seeing Miss Lockhart playing golf with Mr. Lowther on a Saturday. The scene ends with Miss Brodie praising Sandy for her insight and Rose for her intuition, claiming she possesses both qualities.

Sandy develops what she believes to be Miss Brodie's long-term plan: Rose, with her intuition, will have a romantic affair with Mr. Lloyd, seeing him as a great lover who is above societal norms. With her insight, Sandy will act as an informant on the affair. However, the narrator reveals that Mr. Lloyd is only professionally interested in Rose, and Sandy ultimately has an affair with him, with Rose serving as the informant.

It would take some time for these events to unfold. In the meantime, Miss Brodie engages in discussions about art with Sandy and Rose. She encourages Rose to recognize her inner power and fulfill herself, predicting that this will happen when Rose reaches the age of seventeen or eighteen. Rose gains popularity among the boys, but not because she talks about or engages in sexual activities. Teddy Lloyd paints a portrait of all the girls, transforming them into resemblances of Miss Brodie on his canvas. He frequently chooses to paint Rose because she is a natural model and relies on the money he gives her to support her cinema addiction.

Sandy develops warm feelings towards Miss Brodie when she realizes how misguided she is about Rose's sexual adventurousness. Later in life, after becoming a nun, Sandy feels the most affection for Miss Brodie when she thinks of her as silly.

Despite this, their classmates still see the Brodie girls as lacking team spirit and forming a separate social unit. If others did not perceive them this way, the girls would likely have gone their different ways by age sixteen. However, they remain together because they find their position desirable, as everyone thinks they have more fun than other girls, which is true.

Miss Brodie also gathers her special girls around her whenever the school authorities challenge her teaching methods. She warns them that if the authorities do not dismiss her due to her educational methods, they will try to tarnish her reputation through slander. She defends her relationship with Mr. Lowther as a close friendship. Sandy believes that this is because Miss Brodie satisfies her sexual desires through proxy, as her plan for Rose to become Mr. Lloyd's lover comes to fruition. Miss Brodie claims that she could marry Mr. Lowther at any time if she chose to.

However, the morning after Miss Brodie makes this declaration, it is announced in The Scotsman newspaper that Mr. Lowther has become engaged to Miss Lockhart. This news comes as a surprise to everyone, and Miss Brodie feels betrayed. In the following term, Miss Brodie focuses her spare energy on her plan for Rose to become involved with Mr. Lloyd and for Sandy to provide her with information about the affair. The narrator notes that Miss Brodie's remaining energy flows towards political ideas.

Chapter 6 wraps up the novel. Miss Mackay, the headmistress of Blaine, constantly tries to gather evidence against Miss Brodie from the Brodie girls. However, the girls cannot incriminate their former teacher after seven years of friendship without implicating themselves.

One of Miss Brodie's biggest admirers is Joyce Emily Hammond, a wealthy and troubled girl who goes to Blaine as a last resort. Although Joyce Emily does not exhibit delinquent behavior at Blaine, she is not well-liked by the Brodie girls, who are among the brightest students in the school. The set's intelligence poses a challenge for Miss Mackay to discredit Miss Brodie.

Furthermore, the Brodie girls have their own interests and activities outside of their friendship with Miss Brodie. Eunice has a boyfriend, Monica, and Mary helps the less fortunate by delivering groceries to people living in slums; Jenny pursues acting, and Rose models for Teddy Lloyd. Sandy, who entertains the idea of getting Mr. Lloyd to kiss her again, sometimes accompanies Rose during her modeling sessions. The girls also visit Miss Brodie both individually and as a group, leaving little time for Joyce Emily. However, Miss Brodie tries to spend time with Joyce Emily and takes her out for tea and to the theater.

Tragically, Joyce Emily runs away to Spain that year and meets a shocking demise in a train attack. The school holds a remembrance service in her honor.

By their final year at Blaine, only four of the Brodie girls remain. Mary becomes a typist; Jenny enrolls in a dramatic art school; Eunice initially plans to study modern languages but becomes a nurse; Monica pursues science and Sandy studies psychology. Rose, known for her father's lively nature, gets married shortly after leaving school and quickly sheds the influence of Miss Brodie.

Miss Brodie is unaware of how effortlessly Rose distances herself from her influence. She confided in Sandy her belief that Rose and Mr. Lloyd would become lovers, a strategic move on Miss Brodie's part to bring the two together. Sandy, however, discerns that Miss Brodie is "obsessed by the need for Rose to sleep with the man she herself was in love with."

Sandy shares with Miss Brodie, who revels in it that all of Mr. Lloyd's portraits resemble her. Miss Brodie calls herself Mr. Lloyd's Muse and predicts Rose will eventually replace her. On the other hand, Sandy perceives Miss Brodie as someone who believes she is all-knowing, likening her to the God of Calvin. Sandy also considers, based on her knowledge of psychology, that Miss Brodie may be an unconscious lesbian.

The narrative then shifts to the summer of 1938, after the Brodie girls have left Blaine. Miss Brodie travels to Germany and Austria while Sandy studies psychology and frequently poses for her portrait by Mr. Lloyd, often accompanied by Rose. During one instance when Sandy and Mr. Lloyd are alone due to his wife and family being away, Sandy tells him that all his portraits, even of the youngest Lloyd child, resemble Miss Brodie. She gives him a defiant stare, and as he did three years prior, Mr. Lloyd kisses Sandy, marking the start of a five-week love affair between the two.

During their affair, Mr. Lloyd paints a portrait of Sandy. She points out that he makes her look like Miss Jean Brodie, prompting him to start a new canvas. However, the painting ends up resembling Miss Brodie once again. Sandy questions Mr. Lloyd about his obsession with Miss Brodie and highlights her absurdity. While he acknowledges her ridiculousness, Mr. Lloyd advises Sandy to stop analyzing his mind, considering it an unnatural habit for an eighteen-year-old girl.

In September, Miss Brodie and Sandy meet at the Braid Hills Hotel. Miss Brodie confidently discusses Hitler and her belief that fascism, whether Hitlerian or in general, will save the world. However, Sandy finds the conversation boring. Eventually, Miss Brodie confronts Sandy about her relationship with Mr. Lloyd, revealing that Rose informed her of their affair. Sandy admits to being involved with Mr. Lloyd because she finds him attractive. Miss Brodie responds by suggesting that Mr. Lloyd, a Roman Catholic, cannot think for himself and relies solely on instinct, making him unsuitable for someone as insightful as Sandy.

Despite recognizing that Miss Brodie shouldn’t be taken seriously, Mr. Lloyd continues to paint accidental portraits of her. Their affair becomes even more dangerous and exciting when Mrs. Lloyd returns with the family. However, by the end of the year, Sandy loses interest in Mr. Lloyd as a person but remains deeply absorbed in his mind. She is particularly fascinated by his Roman Catholic religion, a fascination that persists even after she ends her relationship with him.

The following autumn, Sandy meets Miss Brodie multiple times, and their discussions revolve around Mr. Lloyd, specifically how his portraits all reflect the lover who abandoned him. During one of these meetings, Miss Brodie reveals to Sandy that she, Sandy herself, not Rose, was destined to be the great lover. Miss Brodie also confides in Sandy about her regret in encouraging the young Joyce Emily to fight for Franco in Spain, a fact that Sandy was previously unaware of.

During that autumn, Sandy returned to Blaine to meet with Miss Mackay and informed her that Miss Brodie was still influencing groups of girls who were both intelligent and out of sync with their classmates. Sandy advises Miss Mackay to try to remove Miss Brodie from her position based on her fascist political interests. Sandy tells Miss Mackay about her intentions because she wants to stop Miss Brodie. When the time comes to force Miss Brodie into retirement due to her politics, Miss Mackay ensures that Miss Brodie knows it was a former Brodie girl who betrayed her.

Finally, in the summer term of 1939, Miss Brodie is compelled to retire on the grounds of teaching fascism. By then, Sandy has joined the Catholic Church and encounters other fascists who are much less pleasant than Miss Brodie.

Miss Brodie writes a letter to Sandy to inform her of her retirement, suspecting that the political issue was merely an excuse and that Miss Mackay disapproved of her educational approach. Miss Brodie is hurt and shocked to think that one of her special girls betrayed her. She tells Sandy that she could suspect any of her girls except for Sandy herself. Sandy responds by saying that if Miss Brodie had not betrayed them, they couldn't have betrayed her.

Over the years, many former Brodie girls have reached out to Sandy after she became Sister Helena of the Transfiguration and published "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace." Jenny writes to inform Sandy that Miss Brodie is past her prime and obsessed with discovering who betrayed her. Jenny also visits Sandy, and while clutching the grille that separates them, Sandy describes Miss Brodie as "quite an innocent in her way." Monica also visits Sandy and reveals that Miss Brodie now suspects Sandy of the betrayal. Sandy responds by saying that betrayal is only possible when loyalty is expected.

Lastly, there is a day when a curious young man visits Sandy and speaks to her through the grille, which she clings to desperately. He asks about her formative influences during her school days, including literary, political, personal, and Calvinism. In response, Sister Helena says, "There was a Miss Jean Brodie in her prime."