Happiness And Happiness In Katherine Mansfield's 'Bliss'

“Bliss” illustrates the contentment one can attain with a mindset of living in an ideal world. Katherine Mansfield shows that for a person to be happy, all they have to do is ignore reality and all the facts that are negative about it. The ignorance that main character Bertha has about her surrounding is portrayed beautifully with symbolism, careful characterization and the writing structures ability to build up curiosity to knowing what is real and what is not. Mansfield, through her character bertha, shows that happiness is a state of delusion and not a destination; those who ignore the facts and reality around them are the ones who reach the zenith of ecstasy.

The author argues that everyone has control of their own mindset and create …show more content…
There is a very mild but very important symbolism of cushions that is also included in the short story; when Bertha “brings the cushions back to the front” and “the room came alive” this shows how really small thing can make a huge difference in a person’s happiness and how one can be content with what they have if their mind is concentrated on the beauty of the smallest things in life. The repetition of her hugging the cushions passionately also shows how passionate people who have their mind set on the absolutely happy and absolutely perfect things in life and hold on to them can be blissful. In the climax of the story, the pear tree being “lovely as ever and full of flower still” was the strongest point made with symbolism; it shows the delusion she can have and that the complete and absolute happiness, the perfect life, it is still there. Anyone can choose to see that “pear tree” the perfect life, if they set their minds to it. Everyone has a choice to believe that their life is …show more content…
The positivity and merry behaviour of Bertha shows how positively she reacts to all the negative features in her life. The characters like the nanny and her husband Harry have a much more different approach and reaction to the same situation. The nanny’s annoyance when Bertha is free spirited in the case of Little B’s situation is a very good example of how a situation completely changes when one thinks differently about it. The way we perceive characters is quite different from the way Bertha sees them; we think the people in Bertha’s life ar rude, annoying but she thinks they are nice. The way the character Eddie is drawn can be a very good illustration of how one can ignore the annoying person and think they are “lovely” just like Bertha does is believe it. The fact that Bertha thinks she knows pearl and that pearl says very seductive things to her it true, at least in Bertha’s mind, this creates complete happiness for her although it did not actually happen. The fact that she thinks her friends are “modern” and the author decided to draw them as very rude, odd, complaining people creates that contrast she wanted to show between a person who believes they are happy just because they believe it (Bertha), and those who are annoyed because they see things just the way they are and choose to not think positively(the readers). So the way the