What is Age?

There are many categories of age. One category’s “personal age” which is measured based on one’s emotional and mental age. The second is “standard age” which measures one’s age based on the amount of time they have spent on Earth. The third is “age group” which is a classification of one’s aged based on society.
Katherine Mansfield’s Miss Brill, a short story about an a lady that lives by herself in a small apartment in Paris, shows that people tend to stereotype characters subconsciously. During the beginning of the story Miss Brill’s age is withheld. This allows readers to think about Miss Brill without preconceived notions. Starting out we see through her eyes. She is more excited about everything and seemed to have the youth of a young person. Later on a “couple” calls her old and a new side of her was shown. Immediately she went from this young person full of hope to this very pitiful old lady. When Miss Brill’s changes perception of herself the reader gains a new perspective. She isn’t this young lady that was starting her life, but rather a old lady whom lived by herself in a ratty old apartment. Our sense of hope for her seems to vanished because we immediately assume that old people don’t have time to change their lives.
Age, like time can be defined as relative. Phrases like “She’s a child at heart” come to mind. This phrase defines someone whose standard age is old, yet they have a personal age that is much younger. Their ideals and views of the world may seem to follow their personal age. Another way people tend to classify age is through maturity level. For example look at a boy whose father may have died and thus they had to fill that role for their younger siblings. A phrase coined for such person is “He had to grow up fast”. In reality his time line didn’t go longer than other people, but he traveled along it faster. This gave him a much older personal age.
What decides one’s age group? Age groups are defined by culture. In Ancient times it was unheard of for a woman to not be wed by the age of twelve, yet today in America being married at the age of twelve is illegal. Recently a health care bill was passed in the United States to say that you are still a child until the age of twenty-six. A simple explanation for the change in standard age applied to an age group seems to be the lengthening of one’s life span. Simply if one can live more years they can afford to stay in each age group for a longer amount of standard time.
Can we really define someone’s age in one term? The answer is no, there are simply too many aspects to the complexity of time. One can be considered much older than the years they have and vise versa. Because of the difference in “standard age” and “personal age” there is no such thing as someone’s true age.

Mansfield ,Katherine “Miss Brill” Stories 1956. New York Vintage 1991 298-302.
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