Bliss

Representative of change, new growth, and possibilities, spring symbolizes Bertha. She understands that, like a spring bulb, she is “waiting for something divine to happen that she knew must happen infallibly” (Paragraph 10). The sensuous nature of flowers—the blooming tulips lean heavily in the dusk and the strong smell of the jonquils fills the room—expresses what Bertha herself is afraid to express. A glimpse of her blossoming self-awareness is seen when “she sat up; but she felt quite dizzy, quite drunk. It must have been the spring” a symbolic acknowledgement of her own sensuality (Paragraph 54).

The pear tree in the garden—“tall, slender […] in fullest, richest bloom”—is closely associated with the protagonist (Paragraph 49). As a function of her growing self-awareness, Bertha acknowledges the physical connection between herself and the pear tree. For the dinner party, she wears “a white dress, a string of jade beads, green shoes, and stockings. It wasn’t intentional. She had thought of this scheme hours before she stood in the drawing-room window” (Paragraph 56). When she enters the hallway, her movement is poetically described as petals softly rustling.

Most poignantly, when Bertha anticipates sharing her garden and the pear tree with Miss Fulton, she is symbolically offering herself. Pearl asks if Bertha has a garden, and “this was so exquisite on her part that all Bertha could do was to obey. She crossed the room, pulled the curtains apart, and opened those long windows. ‘There!’ she breathed” (Paragraphs 13-14). Bertha falsely believes that her offering has been accepted by Miss Fulton. The harshness of the reality is driven home at the end when “Miss Fulton held her hand a moment longer. ‘Your lovely pear tree!’ she murmured. And then she was gone” (Paragraphs 154-155). Bertha, struggling to process the double betrayal by her husband and the woman to whom she has offered herself, repeats the words in a dazed refrain, “Your lovely pear tree—pear tree—pear tree!” (Paragraph 157).