Death and Miriam S Intention
In the short story, “Miriam,” Truman Capote writes of an elderly woman who is visited by a strange little girl. Mrs. Miller, the old woman, is going through her daily routine of life until she meets Miriam. Miriam then begins to dramatically change Mrs. Miller’s life. Miriam’s appearance is mysterious and appears in Mrs. Miller’s dreams. She also seems to have a connection to an old man Mrs. Miller sees on the street. Miriam is an angel of death. To start, Miriam’s façade gives her a supernatural and ominous look. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Miller is waiting in line for a movie. She then notices Miriam and is mystified by her physical features. Capote writes, “Her hair was the longest and strangest Mrs. Miller had ever seen: absolutely silver-white, like an albino’s. It flowed waist-length in smooth, loose lines. She was thin and fragilely constructed. There was a simple, special elegance in the way she stood with her thumbs in the pockets of a tailored plum-velvet coat” (2). When Mrs. Miller sees Miriam, she immediately recognizes that Miriam is ghostly white and considers it odd. Since white usually symbolizes purity and innocence and is typically associated with angels, Miriam is depicted as a little girl. However, as a little girl, she looks older since she is thin and fragile and does not seem to be cold with her not very insulated velvet coat. Miriam’s physical traits create an unnatural and otherworldly impression. Moreover, Mrs. Miller’s dreams are seemingly affected by Miriam. After meeting with Miriam the night before, Mrs. Miller stays in bed the next day and experiences dreams:
One dream threaded through the others like an elusively mysterious theme in a complicated symphony, and the scene depicted were sharply outlined, as though sketched by a hand of gifted intensity: a small girl, wearing a bridal gown and a wreath of leaves, led a gray procession down a mountain path, and among them there was unusual silence till a woman at the rear
One dream threaded through the others like an elusively mysterious theme in a complicated symphony, and the scene depicted were sharply outlined, as though sketched by a hand of gifted intensity: a small girl, wearing a bridal gown and a wreath of leaves, led a gray procession down a mountain path, and among them there was unusual silence till a woman at the rear