-
Novel Analysis of
Happiness
Story
Bertha
Young
was
a
thirty-year-old
woman
whose
husband
was
Harry.
This
couple
had
a
baby
daughter,
Little
B
who
was
looked
after
by
their
nurse,
Nanny.
The
presence of servants Mary and Nanny in
Harry
’
s and
Bertha
’
s house implied that
the
couple
is
part
of
the
upper
class.
On
this
particular
day
of
spring,
Bertha
was
overcome by a feeling of bliss and
sexual passion that rarely appeared before. Today
she and Harry invited some friends to
have a dinner at home. They are
the
Norman
Knights,
a
very
sound
couple;
Eddie
Warren,
a
young
writer
who
just
published
a
little book of poems; and
Bertha
’
s friend, Pearl
Fulton, a beautiful but strange woman.
The dinner was postponed for ten
minutes, because Bertha was told by Harry on the
phone
that
he
would
be
late.
The
Norman
Knights
came
firstly,
Eddie
Warren
secondly, Harry
thirdly and Pearl Fulton last. Actually, Harry was
having a dubious
relationship
with
Miss
Fulton.
However,
Harry
pretended
to
dislike
Miss
Fulton
during
the
dinner.
When
the
guests
left,
Bertha
Young
discovered
that
her
husband
was
having an affine with Pearl Fulton.
Bertha
’
s feeling of bliss
went away.
Plot
This novel starts with the heroine,
Bertha Young, who thinks over how wonderful her
life is. On her way home, she is
drenched in bliss and experiences her whole
existence
as perfect while at the same
time seeming childish and naive. She feels
extraordinarily
content with her home,
her husband, her baby, and her friends.
When she gets home, she begins to
prepare for a dinner party
for this
evening. The
guests
invited
soon
will
be
arrived:
Mr.
and
Mrs.
Knight,
an
artistic
couple;
Eddie
Warren,
a
playwright;
and
Pearl
Fulton,
Bertha's
newest
friend.
Bertha
feels
her
husband
Harry gets some misunderstandings towards her new
female friend, but she
wishes Harry
would like Pearl and eventually become friends
with Pearl.
As
the
guests
arriving
one
after
the
other,
the
dinner
party
begins.
Those
who
in
Bertha
’
s
eyes
being
described
by
herself
as
fashionable
and
passionate
friends
turn
out to be shallow and
vain by their small talk during the dinner:
Although Mr. Knight
runs
a
theater,
he
actually
is
poor
in
knowledge;
Mrs.
Knight
appears
to
keen
on
interior
decorating
but
show
little
esthetic
conception;
Eddie
Warren
’
s
works
and
style
of conversation just like his
long and
smelly
socks; Bertha treats
Pearl Fulton
with a sincere
heart, at last however, Pearl just is hypocritical
and ruthless woman.
As dinner finished
and the guests are ready to go, Bertha finds her
husband and Pearl
are secretly
arranging next date and hears Harry says
I love you to Pearl, but Harry
shows indifferent and cold to Pearl
during the dinner. In face of such scene,
Bertha
’
s
feel of
bliss is gone and instead by the huge pain.
Setting
Bliss was published in 1920, and was
based on Victorian English era,
early
1900’s
.
And that time
feminism was very popular. She lived in London and
in the 1910s, and
1920s,
London
was
a
hubbub
of
literary
and
artistic
activity.
One
of
London
’
s
foremost intellectual and artistic
circle rejected conventional idea on religious,
artistic,
social and sexual matters.
Writer of Katherine Mansfield was also deeply
influenced.
She l
ived and
wrote during the early 1900’s.
she was a
part of the upper-middle class
but she
hated the restrictions that upper-class society
placed upon women during this
era. She
was extremely independent and cynical of men,
particularly her controlling
father.
She
married
and
left
her
first
husband
George
Bowden
within
3
weeks.
She
had
bisexual tendencies and was cheated on by her
husband
–
John Middleton
Murray.
She began writing stories about
childhood after her the only
brother’s
death.
Her work
expresses
many of her criticisms of society and the role of
women in particular. Often
her stories
reflect aspects of
Mansfield’s
own life. Bliss
is one of her the finest short
stories.
It
reflects
two
sexual
no
truth
relationships
and
illustrates
reality,
shows
a
nature
of
society.
It
also
shows
the
at
that
time
Women’s
roles
in
the
1900’s
like
female
suppressed
and
rejecting
conventional
male
society.
In
addition,
the
protagonist of the story, Bertha
reflects herself life. Her husband had a love
affair with
her
friend.
In
December
1919,
before
published,
Mansfield
became
ill
and
was
diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Characters Analysis
In the short novel
Bliss,
there appear nine characters one after another.
The hostess
Bertha Young,
her husband Harry, her servant
Mary,
her nurse Nanny, her daughter
little
Bertha and four guests came to the dinner, Mr. and
Mrs. Norman Knight, Pearl
Fulton and
Eddie Warren.
Bertha Young
was thirty years old from the upper class. She
lived a dreamlike life and
thought
she
has
a
happy
family
whose
members
include
her
husband,
her
daughter
and herself. She
has the characters below. First, she was
childlike, native and lively.
Although
she was thirty, she wanted to run instead of walk,
to take dancing steps on
and off the
pavement, to throw something up in the air and
catch it again. When she
was praised by
her husband for making admirable coufflee, she
could have wept with
child-like
pleasure.
These
aspects
show
that
she
was
a
childlike
and
easy-moved
woman.