Bliss

“She hardly dared to breathe for fear of fanning it higher, and yet she breathed deeply, deeply. She hardly dared to look into the cold mirror—but she did look, and it gave her back a woman, radiant, with smiling, trembling lips, with big, dark eyes and an air of listening, waiting for something… divine to happen…that she knew must happen…infallibly.”

Bertha is on the cusp of something incredible. She is aware that a change is coming, and she is afraid of that change. She sees herself clearly and recognizes the signs of excitement: radiance, trembling, listening, and expectation. She anticipates that the change in herself will be glorious, and she is confident in its inevitability.

“And indeed, she loved Little B so much—her neck as she bent forward, her exquisite toes as they shone transparent in the firelight—that all her feeling of bliss came back again, and again she didn’t know how to express it—what to do with it.” 

The suppression of emotions, one of the story’s themes, is represented in this quote. Although Bertha acknowledges her love for her baby and her appreciation for the child’s beauty, she is stymied by her inability to express her love. Years of adhering to social conventions have left her unsure of what to do with her maternal feelings.

“Why have a baby if it has to be kept—not in a case like a rare, rare fiddle—but in another woman’s arms?” 

This quote serves a dual purpose. It reflects the theme of social restrictions because Bertha is unable to express her natural nurturing feelings for her baby. Their social status dictates that the Youngs have a nanny to supply that affection. Secondly, the quote foreshadows another revelation through a parallel thought: Why have a husband if he is kept in another woman’s arms?

“Oh, why did she feel so tender towards the whole world tonight? Everything was good—was right. All that happened seemed to fill again her brimming cup of bliss.”

This quote represents many significant elements of the story. Bertha’s inability to understand emotions after years of repressing them is one theme. Nonetheless, the quote shows the beginnings of her solving of that internal conflict. She is close to achieving the self-awareness that she struggles with as she notes that everything that was good and right is adding to her happiness. The quote foreshadows the ironic twist of the ending: the people that have added to her bliss—Harry and Pearl—will also cause her impeding despair. The quote also reflects the poetic nature of Mansfield’s prose. She uses poetic devices such as rhetorical questions, parallelism, imagery, and alliteration.

“While she thought like this she saw herself talking and laughing. She had to talk because of her desire to laugh. ‘I must laugh or die.’”

Bertha’s struggles with emotional expression are evident in this quote. Additionally, her statement can be viewed as either histrionic or exuberant depending on the interpretation of Bertha’s personality. Viewed as a sympathetic character, Bertha is laughing at the absurdity of her feelings and the statement is hyperbolic. Seen as a shallow and egocentric person, Bertha’s statement is melodramatic. The fact that the limited omniscient narration enables a dual interpretation of the prominent feature of the story.

“And the two women stood side by side looking at the slender, flowering tree. Although it was so still it seemed, like the flame of a candle, to stretch up, to point, to quiver in the bright air, to grow taller and taller as they gazed—almost to touch the rim of the silver moon.”

A strong simile is present in this quote. The pear tree is compared to the flame of a candle. At the same time, the pear tree is a metaphor for Bertha. Therefore, Bertha’s love for Pearl is like the quivering flame of a candle that is reaching to touch the silver moon, which symbolizes Pearl. Thematically, Bertha is attempting to understand this deep emotion but falls short.

“How long did they stand there? Both, as it were, caught in that circle of unearthly light, understanding each other perfectly, creatures of another world, and wondering what they were to do in this one with all this blissful treasure that burned in their bosoms and dropped, in silver flowers, from their hair and hands?”

This quote contains beautiful images that combine to form a clear picture of a moment. Two women—encircled in light—feel a burning heat and the fleeting touch of flowers. The quote utilizes poetic language. The blissful treasure is a metaphor for Bertha’s love for Miss Fulton. There is alliteration in burned and bosom; hair and hands. The silver flowers are metaphors for the treasure, which is also a metaphor. On a second reading of the story, the situation contains dramatic irony because Bertha does not understand Pearl at all.

“[…] Harry said: ‘My dear Mrs. Knight, don’t ask me about my baby, I never see her. I shan’t feel the slightest interest in her until she has a lover.” 

The motif of sight symbolizing deep knowledge is present in this quote. Harry symbolically cannot understand his daughter, Little B, just as he is incapable of a deep knowledge of her mother, Bertha. Most probably he is disinterested in all women unless he perceives them on a romantic level. Thus, Little B will be completely invisible—never seen by her father—until he can take an interest in her romantic escapades.

“Mug took his eye out of the conservatory for a moment and then put it under glass again.”

This delightful bit of metaphor shows Mansfield’s poetical prose style. She could have simply said that Mug removed his monocle and then put it back in again. Instead, she compares Mug’s eye to a plant being removed and returned to a conservatory.

“From the way he stood in front of her shaking the silver box and saying abruptly: ‘Egyptian? Turkish? Virginian? They’re all mixed up,’ Bertha realized that she not only bored him; he really disliked her. And she decided from the way Miss Fulton said: ‘No, thank you, I won’t smoke,’ that she felt it, too, and was hurt.”

The depth of Harry and Pearl’s deception of Bertha is clear in this quote. They have fine-tuned their performance, playing the roles of disinterested adults to perfection. Harry’s rude abruptness conveys both boredom and dislike of his mistress. Bertha believes that Pearl is hurt by Harry’s behavior. They successfully dupe Bertha. At the end of the story, when the love triangle is revealed, the reader appreciates that they too have been duped—a powerful aha moment.

“They were so frank with each other—such good pals. That was the best of being modern.”

This quote is ironic. Bertha believes that she and Harry are completely frank with each other. His deception clearly proves the opposite. However, in many ways, their relationship is platonic and not romantic. Viewed from that perspective, Harry’s infidelity is not unexpected and perhaps less of a deception. The second half of the quote begs the question, what is the worst of being modern? Bertha learns that answer at the end.

“‘Good night, good-bye,’ she cried from the top step, feeling that this self of hers was taking leave of them forever.”

As the Norman Knights leave her party, Bertha calls her farewell to them. Her statement is quite true, she will not be the same after the revelation that is just a few paragraphs away. 

“Miss Fulton moved towards the hall and Bertha was following when Harry almost pushed past. ‘Let me help you.’ Bertha knew that he was repenting his rudeness—she let him go. What a boy he was in some ways—so impulsive—so—simple.”

Bertha’s ability to be completely mistaken about people is clear in this quote. She misreads the people, the situation, and the motivation. She believes Harry is repenting his seeming rudeness over the cigarettes. Incorrect. He pushes past Bertha—which is rude—but he is not repenting anything. The cigarette incident was a complete ruse which neither Harry nor Pearl regret. Harry is motivated to have a few moments alone with Pearl, which Bertha misreads as being the impulse of a boy. In fact, Harry is being neither boyish nor simple, although impulsive could be true.