Bliss by Katherine Mansfield: Take on Gender Roles

The short story ‘Bliss’ emphasises the complexity of the thoughts going within the protagonist’s mind to accept the feelings which are weird according to the society norms. The story shows how Bertha discovers that she is a bisexual and how she feels about it. It is also a depiction of the conventional patriarchal society where the man works and the women in the house waits for his man to come back home. The short story is filled with symbolism to show various instances of the Protagonist’s feelings. One symbol is very prominent throughout the story. A pear tree in the garden of Bertha is marked as Bertha’s sexuality as throughout the story she looks at that tree and tries to match it with the things going on in her life or specifically her feelings.

First of all the pear tree represents bertha’s virginity. The tree is describes as “had not a single bud”. It means that the tree is unfertilised. Similarly though Bertha is definitely not a virgin as she has a child but she acts like the Young Bertha. In the beginning of the story we see that she has a childish behaviour. She wants to “to run instead of walk” “to throw something in the air and catch it again” shows that she is childlike. The author writes “She stood watching them, her hands by her side, like a poor little girl in front of the rich girl with the doll ” shows that she actually does not know how to handle her own child and this sentence reveals that she sees her child more of a toy than a living being. Her baby is like a fun adorable thing to play with for sometimes but viewers don’t see that she has any motherly instinct towards her child.

The readers don’t see the deep routed motherly love in her. All these instances in the story show that bertha is not mature. She does not portray like a 30 year old women. Her virginal character is prominent most when we see her inexperience with sexual arousal. When she has an encounter with her female crush she gets excited but she does not know what to do with this excitement. The line “all her feeling of bliss came back again, and again she didn't know how to express it–what to do with it” expresses her feelings quiet literally. All this shows that she is a virgin ( not technically) which is symbolised by the infertile or untouched pear tree. This is one aspect of Bertha’s sexuality.

The pear tree symbolises another aspect of the protagonist’s sexuality which is that she is a bisexual. The author writes the tree looked like “almost to touch the rim of the round, silver moon”. Here the moon is symbolised by Bertha’s lady love Pearl Fulton. Pearl is also seen in the story wearing a silver dress. And the pear tree obviously symbolises Young Bertha. Bertha feels that she and Pearl share a connection internally while they look outside the window at the moon. She feels that Pearl touches her hand but that was actually her imagination or her fantasy. This shows the protagonist not just admires Pearl mentally but she also desires her physically. The fact that Pearl is symbolised by the moon, shows that Bertha can never attain her the way she wants. This is because moon is a mark of femininity as moon goes through its own menstrual cycle of 28 days. This is how Bertha is disconnected with Pearl symbolically since Bertha is symbolised by the virgin pear tree and Pearl by the female moon. Bertha has constant confusions going on in her mind about how she feels about Pearl. Whether she is impressed by her and sees her as a role model or is falling for her in love. All this shows that at that time during 1920s, bisexuality was not discovered fully or accepted easily which is prevalent even today.

Theme of betrayal and how the patriarchal society works is also shown in the story. Bertha in the beginning is shown as a lovable wife who calls her husband to talk about how he is doing at work. She cares for him and asks him to come home. Bertha is a house wife who is financially dependent on her husband. Throughout the story we see that Bertha’s husband Harry does not have a friendly attitude towards Pearl but towards the end of the story we come to know that the women that Bertha has feelings for i. e. Pearl is having a secret affair with Bertha’s husband Harry. Bertha after knowing the reality cries out in uncertainty and worries what is going to happen next. Bertha is totally aware that she cannot leave her husband because she is not independent financially. She will have to live with the false marriage. She knew that she will have to live with it. She has to take care of her child. She is totally dependent on her husband for food and shelter. Therefore she cannot afford to leave him. This was the place of women in those days when the story was written which is even prevalent today. Men in the society do not allow their wives to work because they want higher position in the house. The women also don’t rebel against this because they are afraid. Bertha knowing the fact that her husband betrayed her cannot do anything about it.

The last line of the story ‘but the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still’ makes the readers believe that nothing will change between Bertha and Harry. She will be like she was and will put up the show that she loves Harry out of the fear of being homeless. The title of the story ‘Bliss’ is quite apt. The title wants to convey to the readers that ‘ignorance is bliss’. The author is probably trying to say it would be best if Bertha would ignore her feelings towards Pearl so that she can adjust to the norms of the society of a women loving a man and also that Bertha would not even acknowledge the affair between Harry and pearl so that she can be a part of the society. It is for us to decide whether to live in ignorance blissfully or to face the realities and change the historical notions of gender roles.