Bliss (short story)

"Bliss" is a modernist short story by Katherine Mansfield, first published in 1920. It was first published in the "English Review" in August 1918 and later reprinted in "Bliss and Other Stories". [Katherine Mansfield, "Selected Stories", Oxford World's Classics, explanatory notes]

Plot summary

The story follows a day in the life of its main character, Bertha, in Hampstead, London. She feels blissful and experiences her whole existence as perfect while at the same time seeming childish and naive. On this particular day, Bertha has invited friends for dinner. The dinner guests are characterized as shallow and full of vanity by their small talk. At the end of the story, when the dinner guests leave, Bertha's happiness is shattered as she discovers that her husband is cheating on her with her best friend, Pearl.

Characters in "Bliss"

*Bertha Young, the main character, age 30. She is depicted as being extremely naïve but happy. The reader is bound to sympathize with her, because she is the only character in the story who seems to have genuine feelings towards somebody else. The presence of servants in Harry's and Bertha's house implies that the couple is part of the upper class.

*Harry, Bertha's husband. Like most characters, he is characterized only through Bertha's thoughts towards him. At the end of the story it becomes clear that her view of him was not entirely accurate.

*Little Bertha, Bertha's baby daughter
*Mary - servant
*Nurse - servant

Dinner guests

*Mr and Mrs Norman Knight: refer to each other when alone, or in the company of close friends as 'Mug' and 'Face'.

*Eddie Warren: a poet, and an effeminate and possibly homosexual character.

*Pearl Fulton: Bertha's new 'find'; an attractive blonde woman who Bertha is immediately drawn to. There is an air of uncertainty about Pearl, as Bertha is not entirely sure what it is that they share which unites them, she later realises it is a desire for Harry, and perhaps Pearl is sharing in Bertha's Bliss?! Bertha does not know Pearl very well, but falls in love with her nonetheless ("as she always did fall in love with beautiful women who had something strange about them"). It is debated that Bertha might have homoerotic feelings for Pearl. The language describing social out-burst is fitting for a middle class family that is concerned about image, and acceptable behavior. These thoughts, nonetheless, only serve to induce the reader to think about the connection between being a lesbian in the early 20th century.....

Pearl is characterized positively by Bertha's thoughts and feelings towards her. Harry seemingly despises her, but since the story is told through the eyes of Bertha the reader cannot see Harry's deceit. Bertha possibly has homoerotic feelings towards Pearl, as it Pearl who seems to inspire this bliss within Bertha, and also the sexual desire towards her own husband become apparent.

Interpretation

Nature - the pear tree

Bertha sees the blooming pear tree in the garden as a symbol of her happiness and her friendship with Pearl. However, when Bertha's mood changes rapidly in the end, the tree remains the same, showing the error in Bertha's perception of a connection. ("But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still.")

Other Interpretations on the text

The title 'Bliss' may imply a larger irony by Mansfield, our main character Bertha is a woman concerned with material perfection, and an innocence about not only the external world but her internal world as well. she comments on her feelings towards her husband as those of a friend, but when thinking of her new friend Pearl she feels for the first time a sexual lust, but unable to look deeper in to these feelings she is having and without the vocabulary to express it, she turns from her own feeling, pushing them back to focus her energy on the materialism of her dinner party. As Mansfield brings us through the story perhaps she wants us to feel as shocked by the realization of the affair as Bertha, that 'ignorance is bliss'. But that it is our choice whether or not we wish to live in ignorance, or dive deeper into ourselves even if it scares us to discover what we find there. The last lines of this story are also immensely important as well, Pearl's line “your lovely Pear tree” echoes in the readers mind, who is she referring to Harry and the affair she had with him, or Bertha and flirtation between them, or perhaps Pearl like Mansfield herself is bisexual and referring to them both.

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Blis.shtml Full Text]