I think because the character almost seemed like a caricature- too lovably eccentric as the old man; too nervously fumbling as a newcomer. But I didn’t watch very much because I wanted to keep the book’s character top in my mind.
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I read that Robert Donat was only 34 years old when he played the part! I suppose that’s a feat, but looking at the clip now, it’s surprising that he won over Clark Gable’s epic performance.
I haven’t read either book, but when my little sister was a teen she read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and really liked it and wrote Muriel Spark, and Spark sent her a nice letter back.
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That’s amazing!
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I read both books. I started with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie because I got it from the library first. I had no idea what to expect but what I got was unexpected. I’d describe the book as well-written but unsettling. I found myself growing uncomfortable with Miss Brodie early on - uncomfortable with her teaching practices and her favoritism toward certain girls. The word “grooming” was mentioned above, which hits the nail on the head. She chose girls wisely. Any thought that maybe she didn’t do it intentionally disappears when she considers it betrayal that one of the girls reports her actions. I find the girls reactions to her interesting. Some she lost along the way with not a thought to the overall inappropriateness. Only Sandy grows uncomfortable enough to take that next step, maybe because she ended up having sex with the art teacher. Anyway, not sorry I read it because it made me think about the influence teachers can have on the young, and how parents - even good ones - can have only the slimmest of concerns. Hopefully the setting - private girls school in the thirties - made Miss Brodie’s behavior more likely to fly under the radar. Anyway …
As for Goodbye, Mr. Chips - a nice story about a gentle man who grew into who he was meant to be. Less discussion material than Miss Brodie imho just because.
Anyway, glad to have read both but for totally different reasons.
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Goodbye, Mr. Chips may have been a bit saccharine, but it felt real to me, probably because my husband has been a teacher in the same institution for over 40 years, now teaching the children of his first crop of students.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, on the other hand, was more like a dark fable, a cautionary tale.
One reason it left me with that impression was the repeated use of epithets — well not exactly epithets, but descriptive phrases used over and over again as identifiers for each girl, sort of like mythical or storybook characters (grey-eyed Athena, swift-footed Achilles, Peter Pan as the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, or Snow White as the Fairest of All).
Rose Stanley, we’re told dozens of times in only slightly varying ways, “was famous for sex” (“famous for sex appeal,” “had a great reputation for sex,” etc.)
Sandy is “notorious for her small, almost non-existent eyes” (“little screwed-up eyes,” “tiny eyes,” etc.).
Monica Douglas is “famous for mathematics and anger,” Mary for her stupidity, Eunice for her “spritely gymnastics." Jenny was “the prettiest and most graceful girl of the set, and this was her fame.”
Each girl is boiled down to one or two characteristics — and they are not necessarily even accurate. Rose, we learn later, “did not really talk about sex, far less indulge in it.” (Sandy’s “almost non-existent eyes” strikes me as ironic, since she is the one who sees all, has the full picture of Miss Brodie and the betrayal, while the others continue to wonder.)
Reducing each girl to a single trait somehow makes them seem less real, rather like … dolls I guess. Sexy Barbie, Gymnastics Barbie, Stupid Barbie, Angry Barbie. I think they are like dolls to Jean Brodie: something to play with, to move around as she sees fit, to put into their own particular box, refusing to see them as capable of being anything other than the feature she has assigned to them.
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Ugh totally forgot! I’ve read both, but remember nothing. I’ll see if I can skim through them fast.
I have known a lot of teachers who generally love their kids and are a lot like Mr Chips. Happily, I am unaware of any teachers like Miss Brodie. She sounds like a very dangerous person and somehow who puts people into boxes and does what she can to see that they fulfill the label she puts on them. Sadly, there are likely quite a few people like her out in the world.
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I’d say Jean Brodie grooms for power and control, not (her own) sexual gratification. She wants her “set” to both fear and adore her. But grooming is grooming – whatever the goal, the M.O. is the same. From an online site about red flags:
- Excessive flattery and attention
- Gifts and special favors
- Secrecy /pressure to hide conversations
- Boundary pushing / testing rules to see what they can get away with
- Platform hopping: Moving from a public app to private, encrypted platforms; late-night chats become the norm. (I would say the Brodie equivalent would be the extended visits to Mr. Lowther’s and Teddy Lloyd’s private residences.)
- Requests for personal images or info
- Jealousy and control: “Don’t talk to other people,” guilt trips, or threats to share private information
- Age misrepresentation: Lying about age, hiding identity
I think Jean Brodie makes use of most of the above in one way or the other. But in the end, how successful is she? The girls all seem to break free from her grasp without too much difficulty. But they don’t really break free from the memories, continuing to dwell on what took place, even years later.
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Same! But apparently that was not the case for Muriel Spark. The bio at the end of my copy states that the inspiration for Jean Brodie was one of Spark’s own teachers, Miss Christina Kay.
The second half of this article is cut off with a paywall, but there’s enough that you get the idea: The prime of Miss Kay | TLS
I did have a VERY eccentric history teacher. He shunned history books and told us we have to find our own textbooks or any book about history and write about it. He gave me my only “C” in High School, not because I did poorly but because he knew I was capable of much more. I was annoyed and quite offended. He was the one who told us about the hole in the ozone layer and that garbage collectors made more than teachers. He didn’t tell us about his romantic life (there was another HS teacher/coach who would flirt with female students and may have seduced/raped a few). I guess I tried to block those teachers out of my mind. There is currently a coach who is being held without bail for allegedly sexually assaulting several student victims.
The teachers would have a LOT more influence in a boarding school type atmosphere than in public schools where the pupils are only there for 6 or so hours/day.
Teaching has so many opportunities for good/benevolence or bad/evil, depending on the teacher/leader/coach/instructor.
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If we were to have added a third book to this discussion, I think it would have been something like To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite or My Posse Don’t Do Homework by LouAnne Johnson, i.e., caring teachers who struggle to balance the intense educational and personal challenges of students impacted by poverty and / or trauma. Mr. Chips was an excellent instructor who treated his students kindly, but they were young people who, for the most part, were well supported by families (and funds).
In a way, Goodbye, Mr. Chips isn’t really about teaching per se, so much as it is about the value of living a good life of consistent kindness, good humor, and thoughtful care for others. Or as an online summary of the book put it: “how a quiet, seemingly ordinary life of dedicated service can have a profound, lasting impact on generations of people.”
Maybe that’s one reason why Goodbye, Mr. Chips was such a sensation. It spoke to the average person just quietly trying to make it through each day, getting their work done and being kind to others. It may be a life absent of melodrama and without grand heroic deeds, but it matters in ways that are not easy to see in the short term. (It’s a theme that Frank Capra relayed so well in the enduringly popular “It’s a Wonderful Life”.)
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I’d say Jean Brodie grooms for power, control, and sexual gratification.
From AI
… the concept of a “proxy lover” is central to understanding the complex psychology of the main character, Jean Brodie.
The Proxy Relationship
Miss Brodie is deeply in love with the school’s married art master, Teddy Lloyd. However, because he is married and a Catholic, she refuses to enter into a physical affair with him herself. Instead, she satisfies her romantic and sexual desires by proxy. To achieve this vicarious sexual gratification, she deliberately schemes to manipulate her favorite students:
*Rose Stanley: Miss Brodie attempts to orchestrate and groom Rose—whom she deems to have “instinct”—to become Teddy Lloyd’s lover in her place.
*Sandy Stranger: Miss Brodie designates Sandy, who possesses deep psychological insight, to spy on the affair and report back the intimate details so Miss Brodie can experience the relationship second-hand.
The Twist and Backfire
Miss Brodie’s calculated plan ultimately fails because she views her students as extensions of herself rather than independent individuals. While Rose remains completely indifferent to the plot, Sandy Stranger is the one who actually enters into the affair with Teddy Lloyd.
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I have a hard time believing a teacher like Miss Brodie would really last as long as she did at any school. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe Miss Brody’s School is a private day school, not a boarding school. Her group of girls were not the whole class. You can’t be that unconventional and not have kids tell their parents. I know in books you need to take a leap of faith sometimes, and I’m usually willing to do that, but first I have to like the book.
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I agree that Miss Brodie sees her students as pawns and uses them to help satisfy her whims & fancies, including sexual ones.
She seemed to have no remorse that she encouraged one child to go off and join the war, resulting in said child’s death.
Miss Brodie seemed quite without remorse about any consequences of her students and how she had any role in them.
I appreciated the in-depth review of Brodie that @Mary13 pointed out, and I’m enjoying the discussion here! I’m glad I read both books, Chips first. I appreciated its sweetness and shortness.
Mr. Chips reminds me of my husband, a retired professor who’s getting on in age, who was a teacher more than a researcher, who can get lost in digressions and reminiscences. He mentored students for over 30 years and often has alumni coming back to tell him how much he influenced their lives.
Brodie, though, was more my kind of book! Can’t say it was a pleasant read, but it made me think! Nobody was quite likable – in fact, the better I got to know the characters, the less I liked any of them! – but the author kept drawing me in. (Also glad this one was short.)
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Re the title of Sandy’s famous book (from LitCharts): 
“The Transfiguration of the Commonplace” is the title of the psychological treatise Sandy publishes, a work that symbolizes Miss Brodie’s ambivalent influence on her girls and on Sandy in particular. The idea of “transfiguring the commonplace” reflects Miss Brodie’s efforts to mold ordinary young girls in her own image—an image she surely regards as beyond the commonplace. Though Sandy is clearly conflicted over Miss Brodie’s efforts to transform the girls, given the fact that she ultimately betrays Miss Brodie, her scholarly and religious fascination with the idea of transfiguration suggests that the yearning to transfigure—and be transfigured—is a sympathetic and even admirable one; it’s just that human pride, unchecked by other virtues, can cause this instinct to go badly awry.
I would have taken a stab answering the question of the title on a test and would have gotten it correct, just not worded as well. I feel that Sandy suffered most from Miss Brodie’s influence. I just wish she could have broken away sooner. Certainly she saw (with those tiny eyes) or sensed the danger more clearly than the other girls. I don’t understand why she becomes Mr. Lloyd’s lover. Certainly she figured out how to do so - using his triggers.
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I listened to audio version of “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”. I’ll admit to sometimes feeling lost, confusing the characters / timeframe… probably my fault for multiplexing with driving, running etc. Good heavens, I could not believe how many times she’d talk about being “in my prime” - who does that. I would like to see the movie as a friend remembers liking it.
Just finished Goodbye, Mr Chips. Nice quick read on kindle. Sweet story.
I just now finished “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” I read “Goodbye, Mr. Chips” first; it was quick and easy. “Miss Brodie” was much more of a slog to get through, IMO. Of course I had heard of both books, but had never read either one. ( I hadn’t seen the movies, either.)
Echoing what many others have said, I liked “Mr. Chips” better, but I can’t say I loved it. Yes, it was a feel good, sweet story, but it didn’t grab me. As for “Miss Brodie,” I doubt I’d ever call it a great book. I didn’t care for the writing style or the characters, especially Miss Brodie. There were several points in the story when I had trouble figuring out exactly what was happening. At the end I was left wondering exactly what was the point?
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I said I remembered nothing, but I just whizzed through The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (I’d forgotten how short it is.) I vividly remember the language and the fascination of a charismatic cultlike figure. I’m glad we got to see both her good and bad aspects. I’d forgotten Sandy’s role in her downfall, but it’s pretty clear that the entire book is from Sandy’s point of view. I did have teachers who taught beyond the curriculum, but none so wild as Miss Brodie! They were memorable.
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