Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie depicts the coming of age of six adolescent girls, the ."..Brodie set" (Spark 5), in Edinburgh, Scotland during the 1930's, a time whereby great change was occurring in Europe. Miss Jean Brodie, their fascist schoolteacher, gives the reader a close encounter of the social and political climate in Europe at the time. Through looking at the Brodie set and their actions, the author focuses on the adverse effects that the power of authority over the masses can produce. Thus, through one of the girls, Sandy Stranger, the pitfalls of Miss Brodie's idea of dictatorial power are shown as Sandy betrays Miss Brodie. The fascist ideas that ."..retard science and social production in order to mask its own decay" (www.pipeline.com) will forever remain alive only in history books, as a type of system doomed from the very beginnings.

Miss Brodie...