The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The titular character, Jean Brodie, is a middle-aged schoolteacher obsessed with the idea of being in the “prime” of her life. While she never explicitly defines what this means, she insists throughout the novel that it is crucial to know when one is in one’s prime. She is described as having brown eyes and a “Roman profile,” and she often has a tan when she returns to school after spending her holidays in Italy (6). The girls spend a great deal of time trying to determine if Miss Brodie is considered conventionally beautiful, driven largely by their observation that Mr. Lloyd and Mr. Lowther compete for her affections. While she has a long but casual relationship with Mr. Lowther and an unconfirmed (but implied) sexual dalliance with Mr. Lloyd, she remains unmarried throughout the novel. She frequently discusses her late fiancé—a man named Hugh, six years younger than she, who was killed in World War I. Miss Brodie stays in touch with Sandy after the girls in the “Brodie set” leave the Marcia Blaine School, but she seems to have lost touch with the rest of the set. Her communications with Sandy focus obsessively on the question of who betrayed her to Miss Mackay.