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Katherine Mansfield, "Bliss"

BIOGRAPHY

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Literary and Artistic Context

The first two decades of the twentieth century marked a period of dramatic cultural change. Advances in technology, new scientific discoveries, emerging social and political theories, and World War I contributed to a sense that the values and institutions of the past were becoming less and less relevant in the new century. From this cultural upheaval arose a new artistic movement called "modernism." On the Internet, you will find countless articles dedicated to modernism and the modernists; links to several are listed on the "Related Links" page of this workshop. Begin a study of modernism by viewing a Power Point overview, which includes a discussion of the changes in the culture, their effects on literature, the comparison to Victorian literature, and the characteristics of modernist writing. Next narrow the focus of your research to modernism and fiction. As you read these articles, try to make a list of the characteristics of modernist literature; if you have difficulties, refer to this summary of modernist styles and themes. Since Katherine Mansfield is considered a modernist, consider in what ways "Bliss" shows characteristics of modernism.

In 1910, Mansfield saw the controversial "Manet and Post-Impressionists" Exhibition in London. This exhibit, which showed all of the major post-impressionist painters for the first time in England, had a tremendous effect on English writers, particularly those of the Bloomsbury Group, with whom Mansfield associated. The exhibit included paintings by Gaugin, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Manet, Seurat, and Matisse.

Of her own reaction to the exhibit, Mansfield wrote that seeing Van Gogh's Sunflowers for the first time "taught me something about writing that was queer, a kind of freedom¾or rather a shaking free." View some post-impressionist paintings online and consider how they may have influenced a story like "Bliss." Look for descriptive passages in "Bliss" that remind you of the images in the paintings. Find passages in which Mansfield emphasizes color or composition in a painterly way. How could Mansfield's style be influenced by post-impressionism? Consider typical post-impressionistic qualities such as subjectivity, fragmentation, and interest in psychological states.

Literary Comparisons

In London, Katherine Mansfield made the acquaintance of such literary notables as D.H. Lawrence, T.S. Eliot, Bertrand Russell, and the Bloomsbury Group, including Virginia Woolf, with whom she had a sometimes-shaky friendship. In her diary, Virginia Woolf wrote that Mansfield created the "the only writing that I have ever been jealous of." Read something about the goals and beliefs of the Bloomsbury Group and their efforts at "creating a new modern world." How would Mansfield's work have fit in? What in the content or style of "Bliss" seems influenced by the group's lifestyle and objectives?

Read these first three paragraphs of Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway:

Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself.

For Lucy had her work cut out for her. The doors would be taken off their hinges; Rumpelmayer's men were coming. And then, thought Clarissa Dalloway, what a morning—fresh as if issued to children on a beach.

What a lark! What a plunge! For so it had always seemed to her, when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which she could hear now, she had burst open the French windows and plunged at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp and yet (for a girl of eighteen as she then was) solemn, feeling as she did, standing there at the open window, that something awful was about to happen; looking at the flowers, at the trees with the smoke winding off them and the rooks rising, falling; standing and looking until Peter Walsh said, "Musing among the vegetables?"—was that it?—"I prefer men to cauliflowers"—was that it? He must have said it at breakfast one morning when she had gone out on to the terrace—Peter Walsh.

Compare this passage from Mrs. Dalloway with the first few pages of "Bliss." Look first for similar content: Are there any common images, any common personality traits shared by Clarissa Dalloway and Bertha, any common plot points? Then compare the narrative style in both stories: Do they have a similar point of view? In what kind of language and syntax are the thoughts of the characters revealed to the reader? How much actually happens in the plot?  If you are writing a longer comparison/contrast essay, read Mrs. Dalloway in its entirety to make a fuller analysis.

Frequently the works of Katherine Mansfield are compared to those of the nineteenth-century Russian realist Anton Chekhov. Like Chekhov, Mansfield concentrated on ordinary people, trivial events, and minute, realistic detail. In her letters and journals she often referred to the influence of Chekhov; you'll even find a reference to him in "Bliss."   Read Chekhov's short story "The Lady with a Dog" in your Norton Anthology or online.  Comment upon the similarities Mansfield shares with Chekhov in subject matter and style. How do they differ? If you need some help interpreting "The Lady with a Dog," take a look at some this commentary by author V. S. Pritchett.

Most of Mansfield's stories are available online as e-texts. Read one or two additional stories from the Blisscollection or from The Garden Party and Other Stories. Look for patterns in the way that Mansfield develops her stories in terms of point of view, sentence structure, word choice, and plot structure. What themes seem of repeated interest to Mansfield? Pay particular attention to how she reveals the psychological identity of her characters.

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