Predestination
Miss Jean Brodie is almost fanatical in her disregard and disdain for the Calvinist doctrine of predestination which suggests that well before anyone is even born, God has already determined their fate in regard to the afterlife. Brodie embraces and teaches the idea that everyone is capable of making their own destiny. This will eventually prove ironic on several levels when Brodie’s admiration for fascism and fascist tyrants like Mussolini and Hitler eventually catches up with her. One of those levels is, of course, that readers equipped with even the most cursory understanding of history will see this end well before Brodie.
Sister Helena of the Transfiguration
Brodie chooses Sandy to join her exclusive set because she herself possesses the insight to recognize that Sandy possesses this trait she holds so dearly. Ironically, Brodie lacks the insight to recognize that her closest student has betrayed her.
Mr. Lloyd's Lover
In what is surely an attempt to at least symbolically consummate her love for Mr. Lloyd which she cannot do literally because he is married, Miss Brodie sets in motion a manipulative plan to have Rose seduce the art teacher, relying upon Sandy’s “insight” to give her the accounting which is necessary for the sublimated passion to be consummated. This plan goes awry in nearly an orgy of irony as Brodie’s dependence upon Sandy’s insight and Rose’s instinct turn out to be wildly misplaced and misguided.
The Brodie Set
The girls who become the favorites of their teacher and form the Brodie set are allegedly selected because they exhibit individuality. In reality, however, the traits associated with the girls are of a superficial quality and the only thing that really makes them special is their membership in a collective unit.
Miss Jean Brodie: The Ultimate Team Player
Miss Brodie’s stated opinion on being a “team player” could not be clearer:
“Phrases like ‘the team spirit’ are always employed to cut across individualism, love and personal loyalties.”
This from a woman who also asserts that
“Mussolini is one of the greatest men in the world.”
For the ill-taught, the irony here is that while Miss Brodie warns of the danger that being a team player presents to individualism, she also expresses admiration for a political ideology that is fundamentally constructed upon being a team player that violently opposes any and all expressions of individualism which runs counter to it.
