What are the parallels between Miss Brodies' "vision" and methods and those of the fascist dictators she admired? How does religion influence this in the novel?.
The rise of Miss Brodie's fascisti centers on two things: Miss Brodie's realization of her prime, and the selection of her disciples. Miss Brodie's prime begins in 1930. "'I have frequently told you, and the holidays just past have convinced me, that my prime has truly begun'" (p. 11). Like the major fascist leaders of the time - Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco - Miss Brodie realizes her potential and begins to select her disciples. .
The Great Depression of 1929 - 1939 threw the industrialized west into disarray. Where democratic institutions were weak, the right tended to gain the upper hand. Here the charismatic appeal of strong personalities preaching a reactionary doctrine tended to gain the power.
Hitler and his prime revolutionary conspirators had their attitudes formed by catholic teaching. Mussolini was catholic. Franco was catholic. Salazar was catholic. The worst dictatorships and greatest social inequalities in South America are under catholic administrations. While the Catholic Church publicly resisted these dictators. Their rituals and reactionary views often created them. .
While living in the convent Sandy realises that there are quite a number of Fascists much less agreeable than Miss Brodie (125). " she had entered the Catholic Church, in who's rank she had found quite a number of Fascists much less agreeable than Miss Brodie." (125) This could be supporting the idea that the Catholic church in itself was a fascist organisation or breeding ground and that Miss Brodie and the Catholic church were very much the same. It is suggested earlier in the novel that the catholic religion was probably the only religion suited to Miss Brodie's temperament and this could be why she shunned it so. .
Miss Brodie represents a woman who is Calvinistic in mind and very interested in the arts.
