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:
“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)
“Democracy is the menopause of Western society, the Grand Climacteric of the body social. Fascism is its middle-aged lust.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“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)