V And The Pear Tree example essay topic

Essay on Katherine Mansfield's Bliss The pear tree as a symbol for Bertha's life Katherine Mansfield's short story Bliss is filled with a lot of underlying mean-ing's and themes. There are as well many symbols that Mansfield uses and among those the pear tree is an important one. In this essay I will prove that the pear tree is both a symbol for for Bertha and her life and the awakening of her sexuality. First I will sketch on the symbolic meanings of a pear and a tree as they are described in symbolic books and I will then focus on the pear tree in relation to Ber-tha throughout the story. In many books such as those of psychoanalysis and symbolism the pear is! V like the apple!

V a symbol of fertility and due to its bosom-like shape an image for the feminine sexuality. Moreover a dream of a pear or an apple tree means good news that is important for the rest of the life. The tree for itself has as well symbols for its own. In many religions and myths there is the Tree of Life.

Trees often spend safety, shadow and food. A healthful and flowering tree is a symbol of strong potency. A draughty tree symbolizes misfortune, whereas a tree full of fruits and leaves means luck and also bliss. At the very beginning of the story we get to know the thirty-year-old Bertha Young coming home and preparing herself and the house for a dinner party at the evening. At first sight we see her as a very blissful young woman who seems to have!

SS everything!" ! V! he was married!" , ! he was young!" , had an! SS adorable baby!" , an! Ssa-solute ly satisfactory house and garden!" and! SS modern friends!" (p. 123)! V but later we should find out that she is everything but satisfied with her life.

As Bertha makes ref- to a pear tree in her garden a dozens of times throughout the story seeing it! SSas a symbol of her own life!" (p. 123) I would say that she feels herself rooted to the life she has created in the same way as the pear tree is rooted to the garden. But there is quite a more explicit connection between Bertha and the pear tree in the sense of growing and flowering. As already stated even since the Middle Ages the pear tree has often been seen as an image for the female sexuality and also in Bliss it serves as such an image.

The pear tree is described as a! SSt all, slender pear tree in fullest, richest bloom. !" It stands! SS perfect, as though becalmed against the jade-green sky!" (p. 122). It is spring! V!

SSYes, it was Spring!" (p. 123)! V and the pear tree is on peak of its flowering beauty during this time of the year when its branches blossom. Spring is the time when everything wakes up from an un flowering winter and when the most animal children are born. This marks the beginning of a new year and sym- of a new beginning, a new life. Everything awakes and so Bertha is doing, too. Her Bliss, her happy child-like feelings when she wants!

SSto bowl a hoop, to throw something up in the air and catch it again!" (p. 116) is not a form of madness but just an expression of her awakening sexual feelings. Whereas she had never had any sexual desire for her husband throughout the years! V they were just like really! SS good pals!" (p. 134)! V her desire for him grows big-ger and bigger during the dinner party!

SS for the first time in her life!" (p. 133) with the result that the only thing she is looking forward is the moment when the guests will leave, when! SSthe lights will be out!" and when she and Harry! SS will be alone together in the dark room! V the warm bed... !" (p. 133).

At that point she starts wondering whether her desire was it! SS what that feeling of bliss had been leading up to!" (p. 134). Quite from the very beginning of Bliss and during the whole day she is possessed by this blissful feeling and somehow very ex-cited to the dinner party. Referring to Hankin she is in such an expectancy to the dinner party as if it was her wedding-feast. And I have to admit that there are some hints in this direction. During the evening Mug wonders why!

SSthe bridegroom!" (p. 126)! V i.e. Harry! V has not appeared yet and does therefore compare Bertha to his bride. And she indeed does look like a bride by wearing a! SS white dress, a string of jade, green shoes and stocking!" (p. 124) and is therefore as coloured as the pear tree that Bertha feels so connected to. From now on!

V even if! SS it wasn! |t intentional!" (p. 124)! V Bertha identifies herself with the pear tree. She wants to become as beautiful and furthermore!

V not realising it so far! V as blossomed as the pear tree. As I mentioned above her sexual desire for Harry starts flowering throughout the story but in my opinion without any explicit reason. Nevertheless her new friendship to Pearl, whom Bertha has!

SS fallen in love with!" as she always does! SS with beautiful women!" who have! SS something strange about them!" (p. 121) might be an influence. For Bertha Pearl is someone! SS who means so much!" (p. 133) to her and from my point of view not in a sense of homosexual ten-deny but as someone who is very interesting for her. Pearl seems to be!

SS wonder-fully frank!" (p. 121) and as well a! SS new and mysterious!" (p. 127) find. Bertha does not only feel attracted by her but she has actually also find someone that she feels con-nec ted to, someone that might understand her and her desire. She feels that they do share something together, at least such a blissful feeling. Maybe with her! V and only with her!

V Bertha can talk about her desire. She admires Pearl and in a further way she wants to be near her! V on a same level as she. And just in that moment the pear tree has changed it appearance: it is!

SS silver now, in the light of poor dear Eddie's moon, silver as Miss Fulton!" (p. 129). Now Bertha wants to get even closer to Pearl and looks for! SSa sign!" (p. 130) from her that she also would want to do so. And Pearl indeed gives a sign when asking the question: ! SS Have you a garden? !" (p. 131). By pulling the!

SS curtains apart!" and opening the! SS long windows!" (p. 131) Bertha presents the pear tree to Pearl and consequently unfolds her life to her. She wants to show by the flowering and impress-side pear tree! V which is as everybody knows as symbol for her own life! V her flow-e ring beauty. Both stand! i de by side at the slender, flowering tree!" (p. 131).

At this moment Bertha feels like the both of them were! SS creatures of another world!" (p. 131) and that they might have something in common which does at a later point -namely turn out to be true: both woman share the same man! V Harry. Even though Bertha's husband has always behaved as he! SS dislikes her!" (p. 133) he now seems to have an affair with Pearl who by the way is as well dressed in the colours of a bride: !

Small in silver, with a silver fillet binding her pale blond hair!" (p. 127). When Pearl leaves the house Bertha discovers their relationship by chance watching Harry's lips saying! SSI adore you!" and! SSTo-morrow!" which is said! SSyes!" (p. 135) to by Pearl.

Pearl, who is dressed silver, is also represented in another way much earlier in the story: as! SSa grey cat!" (p. 122) which is followed by a black one (Harry). This scene has Bertha given! SSa curious shiver!" (p. 122) but she hasn! |t had any idea of this par-alle lism yet. As Pearl makes her farewell she murmurs! SS Your lovely pear tree! !" (p. 136) which indicates that Pearl as well likes the pear tree and consequently Bertha.

But what does this matter now being betrayed by both her husband and her new friend? Well, as we can see the pear tree is! SSas lovely as ever and as full of flowers and as still!" (p. 136) so Bertha is feeling, too. She sees how her pear tree can stand alone proudly, day after day.

And she feels that she can easily do the same. In conclusion we can say that the pear tree in Bliss serves very much as a symbol and a metaphor for Bertha by representing us her feelings: the pear tree is in fullest richest bloom and so she is, too. Also the awakening of her sexuality is imaged by the pear tree and thus Bertha is no longer young! V which is suggested by her name! V but has gained the same maturity as the pear tree.

Bibliography

Primary Literature:" h Mansfield, Katherine. Bliss and Other Stories. London: Constable Publ., 1920.
Secondary Literature:" h Full brock, Kate. Katherine Mansfield. Brighton: The Harvester Press, 1986".
h Hankin, Clark. Katherine Mansfield and Her Confessional Stories. London: The Macmillan Press, 1983".
h Hoffmann-Kramer, Ernst et. al., Handwoerterbuch des deutschen Aberglaube ns. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1927".
h Hanson, Clare and Andrew Guru. Katherine Mansfield. New York: St. Martins Press New York, 1981.