Bertha and the Pear Tree

Heather Cline

English 244

The Hidden Truth

The story “Bliss” written by Katherine Mansfield is full of symbols. In order to understand the complete meaning of this story, a person would have to interpret what the symbols represent.

Bertha Young who is a character within the story “Bliss” uses a pear tree as a symbol to identify her life and her homosexuality. The clothes that Bertha wore within this story were the colors of the pear tree. Bertha considers the pear tree to be wonderful, flawless, and passionate, much like her life on the outside but on the inside, Bertha’s life is very dull. The pear tree sparked something inside of Bertha, an attraction to women. Bertha and Harry never enjoyed being intimate. Bertha nor Harry never actually had a connection between each other. Although as you will later see Bertha did have a physical attraction to the lady named Pearl Fulton within the story. The Physical connection between Bertha and Pearl occurred while they were both gazing at the pear tree. This thesis can be proven by parts of the story “Bliss”: A crucial part of the story “Bliss” was when Bertha showed her garden to a lady named Pearl Fulton. You could tell that Bertha was very emotional in this scene because she seemed to forget the time and the world around her. The thoughts of Bertha were described very emotively. In this scene, it seems that the pear tree is touching the outer edge of the round, silver moon. We know that Bertha uses the pear tree symbol to identify herself because she says that her dress that she is wearing resembles the pear tree. The symbol of the moon and it silver light within this story is also a very important symbol. The moon is known as an ancient symbol for the feminine principle in the world. The female sex hormone cycle also known as menstruation and the moon’s cycle are very similar. This is how a reader could make a connection between the symbol of the moon within the story and the female sexuality. The moon...