Bliss
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“Bliss” opens with Bertha Young reflecting on how wonderful her life is. As she walks home, she is overwhelmed by a feeling of bliss; she feels tremendously content with her home, her husband, her baby, and her friends.
At home, she begins to prepare for a dinner party she is having that evening. She reflects on the guests that will be arriving soon: Mr. and Mrs. Knight, an artistic couple; Eddie Warren, a playwright; and Pearl Fulton, Berthas newest friend. Bertha wishes that her husband, Harry, would like Pearl; he has expressed some misgivings over the womens burgeoning friendship and Bertha hopes they will eventually become friends too.
As Bertha waits for her guests, she looks out on her garden. Her enjoyment of a pear tree with wide open blossoms, which she sees as representing herself, is ruined by two cats creeping across the lawn. Bertha meditates on how happy she is and how perfect her life is. She goes upstairs to dress, and soon thereafter her guests and ..
Bertha Young felt the bliss in her soul, family, and everything that surrounded her. There were sunny days, happy faces, smiles everywhere and it was this purity that let the bliss flow around her, fulfilling her house and her anima day and night. Berthas mirror reflected only the image of innocence and blind happiness! Thirty years facing this world, Bertha and reality were two strangers who lived together never realizing it. Sometimes the innocence or purity may only correspond to one aspect of a characters personality or background, but not in Berthas case.
She is oblivious to the mysterious reaction of her new “best” friend, to the reasons why her husband, Harry, did not like her friend, and also to this …
although that is the first reaction- it is the story about achieving adulthood and independent thought. For this woman will never again go around blindly, accepting the social norms of what has been dictated to her from birth. The point of the story is the imagined next day of this woman, who has been so shaken to her core, and how she will survive the knowledge of hypocrisy in the world. So this poor woman is actually a hero- she has gone through her adolescence a bit later than one would hope of a modern day woman, but nonetheless, she has achieved her own independence. So in reality, it is a story of triumph.