Fascism
Miss Brodie is described as a "born fascist" by one of her girls. An active teacher while fascism was gaining popularity in Europe, she openly admires Benito Mussolini and praises him to her class. She frequently tours Italy returning inspired by what she sees as Utopia. When Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany, she changes her holiday destination to Berlin, believing Hitler's brownshirts to be more organised than Mussolini's blackshirts. When Sandy meets her for tea in the Braid Hills Hotel in 1946, Miss Brodie concedes that "Hitler was rather naughty". Her advocation for fascism is put into direct action when she persuades a troublesome girl to fight for Francisco Franco, which leads to tragedy.
Read more about this topic: Jean Brodie
Famous quotes containing the word fascism:
“Under the species of Syndicalism and Fascism there appears for the first time in Europe a type of man who does not want to give reasons or to be right, but simply shows himself resolved to impose his opinions.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“Worst of all, there is no sign of any relaxation of antisemitism. Logically it has nothing to do with Fascism. But the human race is imitative rather than logical; and as Fascism spreads antisemitism spreads.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“The strategic adversary is fascism ... the fascism in us all, in our heads and in our everyday behavior, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.”
—Michel Foucault (1926–1984)