The fur serves as a symbol to Miss Brill’s character. The fur is cherished by Miss Brill who addresses it as “Dear little thing” (117), which shows that she speaks to it as if it is alive, illuminating her loneliness and isolation to the outside world because of the way she addresses the dead fox fur. In an attempt to bring it alive, she “give[s] it a good brush, and rub[s] the life into the dim little eyes” (117), but since it is dead it implies Miss Brill identifying herself with a dead animal, making her just as dead as the fox fur. When the young girl states, “’It’s her fu-fur which is so funny’” (120), gives off the sense of how strange Miss Brill must seem to the public. Then the girl says, “'It's exactly like a fried whiting’” (120), this illustrates how she sees the fox fur as a cooked bird making more of a connotation of how dead the fox fur really must appear. Upon her realization of being unfit in the community, her heart shatters, crumples and her youth brought down. While Miss Brill physically, “put[s] the lid on” the box after laying her fur in, she is emotionally locking her life away. Then “she thought she heard something crying” (121), this is not the fur crying but Miss Brill crying because the life in her was torn down by the young couple that was making fun of her. The effect of using the fox fur necklet serves as a symbol to indirectly characterize Miss Brill as being isolated and dead. The fox fur appears fine on the outside but is actually hollow and dead on the inside which is explained when “[she] rub[s] the life into the dim little eyes “ (117), indicating that she tries to put life into it just as she tries to put life into herself. When at first she’s proud to wear her fur necklet later her confidence is brought down when the young girl at the park says, “ ’It’s her fu-fur which is so funny’. . . 'It's exactly like a fried whiting’ ” (120), she indirectly characterizes Miss brill as being dead on the inside similar to a cooked bird. Later her confidence is brought down when she goes home to “put the lid on [the box] she thought she heard something crying” (121), indicates a shift in Miss Brill’s character as seen from the beginning of the story when she was full of enthusiasm and life to the end, when all the life is brought out of her, and she essentially dies on the inside.