Imagery in Katherine Mansfield's Short Story "Bliss"

Abstract

Since the death of Katherine Mansfield, the kind of attention

her short stories have received has followed an understandably

meandering path. There is no doubt that she joins D.H.Lawrence and

Aldous Huxly among others in parading those she knew in real life

through the pages of her fiction-and no one more consistently than

herself.(Magalaner,p.413).

The vision of the human condition which emerges from

Katherine Mansfield's stories is a painful one. It is predicated upon the

notion that to be human is to be a victim and that life preys upon those

least capable of defending themselves against the impossible and

intolerable situations it presents. Each stage and condition of life has

inescapable situations peculiar to it. Women are victimized by the basic

fact of their sex: demanding and insensitive men brutalize them, child

birth exploits them, and female self-sacrifice is regarded by the male

world as routine and expectable. The young and naïve are victimized by

the process of learning the lessons life waits to teach: the fact of death,

the relentless passage of beauty and vigor, the disappointment of

idealism. The old are victimized by loneliness and sickness,by fear of

death,by the thoughtless energy of the younger world around

them.Mansfield's sympathies are torn between her commitment to life

itself, the potential beauty of experience,and the apparent denial of that

potential beauty when the chips are down.

To enter into a relationship with another person is,according to

Mansfield,to be victimized by the one most loved,most trusted .The only

option is to become a victimizer,to inflict the pain,betray the trust.