The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Miss Mackay has not given up getting information from the Brodie girls. Every term, she invites the girls to tea and asks about Miss Brodie, determined to find something damning. Once, she hints to Sandy that Miss Brodie is no longer the energetic teacher she was years ago, and this is probably due to her drinking. Sandy, however, replies that Miss Brodie only drinks on her birthday, and even then, it is only a little sherry.

By this point, the Brodie girls are 17 and can now see Miss Brodie independently of her identity as their teacher. They recognize that she is, in fact, “really an exciting woman as a woman” (124). They notice that Mr. Lowther still looks at her shyly as if seeking approval or remembering their time together fondly.

A new girl, Joyce Emily Hammond, arrives at Marcia Blaine. A troubled girl, she was forced to withdraw from a series of other schools, although the nature of her delinquency is not clear. Her family is wealthy, and a chauffeur drops her off at school every day. The rest of the students are busy enough with examinations and sports matches that they do not pay much attention to her, but Joyce Emily decides she wants to become part of the Brodie set. She recognizes that they are different from the rest of the school and, except for Mary, are some of the brightest students at Marcia Blaine. They are all too busy with their respective hobbies and pastimes to spend time with Joyce Emily: Eunice swims and dives, Jenny acts with the drama society, Monica and Mary take groceries to poorer neighborhoods, and Sandy and Rose visit Teddy Lloyd. However, Miss Brodie accepts Joyce Emily and begins taking her to tea and the theatre.

Joyce Emily soon tells Miss Brodie that her brother went to fight in the Spanish Civil War and admits that she wants to go find him and join the fight against Franco and the fascists. One day, Joyce Emily’s teachers notice that she has not been in school for several days. Six weeks later, they learn that she ran away to Spain and was killed when the train she was on was attacked.

Meanwhile, Mary begins working as a typist, and Jenny goes to an acting school, leaving only four of the Brodie set at Marcia Blaine. Three of them have planned their courses of study: Eunice will study nursing, Sandy psychology, and Monica science. Rose has remained in school only to please her father, a jolly widower who owns a shoe-making business. Miss Brodie does not like Rose’s father because he seems to lack culture, but the rest of the girls like him. Rose, having inherited her father’s energetic, practical personality, marries soon after finishing school, and thus shakes off Miss Brodie’s influence quickly. However, prior to this, Miss Brodie tells Sandy that Rose will inevitably become Teddy Lloyd’s lover. Sandy realizes that Miss Brodie has never acted or spoken theoretically but has in fact always planned for this to happen. Sandy has continued spending time at the Lloyd house, sometimes going shopping with Deirdre and sitting in the studio while Rose poses for Mr. Lloyd. She has also repeatedly told Miss Brodie that all the portraits look like her rather than Rose. Miss Brodie says that while she is Teddy’s muse, she will step aside and let Rose take her place. It dawns on Sandy that Miss Brodie considers herself a godlike figure, and, inspired by her psychology books, she wonders briefly if Miss Brodie might be “an unconscious Lesbian” (129).

In a flash forward, Rose visits Sandy at the convent, and they eventually talk about Miss Brodie. Rose says Miss Brodie often talked about dedication, and Sandy reveals that Miss Brodie was fired because of politics rather than sex. Monica, facing a crisis in her marriage, also visits the convent. In a fit of anger, she threw a live coal at her husband’s sister, and he demanded a divorce. Monica asks if Rose ever had sex with Teddy Lloyd; Sandy says no and confirms that Miss Brodie and Teddy were definitely in love with each other. Monica says that seems like a true renunciation.

Back in the summer of 1938, Miss Brodie goes to Germany and Austria as the girls finish school. Deirdre Lloyd takes the children to the country while Teddy stays in Edinburgh to teach, and Rose and Sandy continue visiting his studio. One day, while they are alone, Sandy tells Teddy that all the portraits look like Miss Brodie, including those depicting his family. He kisses her, and they begin an affair that lasts for five weeks. He paints Sandy’s portrait, and when it looks like Miss Brodie, Sandy asks why he is so obsessed with her and says she is ridiculous. Miss Brodie returns from her trip and reports that Germany and Austria are “magnificently organized” (131). She claims Hitler will save the world and insists there will be no war. Sandy thinks that the only people who need saving are Edinburgh’s poor. Miss Brodie says Rose told her that Sandy and Teddy Lloyd are lovers. She adds that a girl with Sandy’s insight should have known better to have an affair with a Catholic man, as Catholics cannot think for themselves.

The more time Sandy spends with Teddy, the more she accepts that he is still in love with Miss Brodie, and she eventually loses interest in him and becomes increasingly fascinated by religion. She still sees Miss Brodie occasionally, and Miss Brodie says she was surprised to learn that Sandy was destined to become a great lover rather than Rose. She adds that she sometimes regrets urging Joyce Emily to go to Spain and fight for Franco, as Joyce Emily—a girl of instinct—would have also been good for Teddy Lloyd. Sandy, unaware until that moment that Joyce Emily had been convinced to fight for the fascist government, visits Miss Mackay. The headmistress bemoans the fact that she could never prove Miss Brodie acted inappropriately in her personal life, and she tells Sandy that Miss Brodie has already formed a new set. Sandy tells her that Miss Brodie is “a born Fascist” and adds that she has no interest in politics, only in stopping Miss Brodie (134).

Sandy leaves Edinburgh that year after visiting Teddy Lloyd’s studio to look at all the Brodie portraits one more time. Miss Brodie is forced into retirement in 1939 on the grounds that she has been teaching fascism. When Sandy hears this, she remembers the pictures of the Blackshirts Miss Brodie brought back from Italy. She also admits to herself that many fascists are part of the Catholic Church. Miss Brodie writes a letter to Sandy in which she says the school, which hated her educational policy, was unable to fire her on the grounds of personal immorality and had to use politics as an excuse. She is especially hurt by Miss Mackay’s claim that a member of her own set betrayed her, but she adds that she knows Sandy is the only one she can trust, as Sandy had no reason to betray her. She thinks it could have been any of the other girls because they are all stupid, mediocre, or jealous of her. Sandy replies by saying that no one could have betrayed Miss Brodie if Miss Brodie had not betrayed them first.

Miss Brodie writes Sandy again after Mary dies, wondering if Mary’s death was a punishment for betraying her. Jenny also writes to Sandy, saying that Miss Brodie is past her prime and is obsessed with the question of who betrayed her. After Miss Brodie’s death, the group soon stops talking about her, although they continue to visit Sandy at the convent every summer. Many years later, Jenny tells Sandy about her encounter with the strange man in Rome and says Miss Brodie would have liked to hear about it. Eunice tells Sandy she brought flowers to Miss Brodie’s grave in Edinburgh and told her husband all about their group. He thinks she sounds like “marvellous fun,” and they agree that she was, while she was in her prime (136). Monica visits and asks Sandy if the group did not owe Miss Brodie loyalty; Sandy says they did, but only up to a point. Finally, a young man visits Sandy to ask about her treatise. He wants to know if she was inspired by literature, politics, or Calvinism. She says she was inspired by Miss Jean Brodie in her prime.