Katherine Mansfield: Bliss: Pear Tree

In Katherine Mansfeild's Bliss, Bertha refers to a pear tree throughout the story.

"The windows of the drawing-room opened on to a balcony overlooking the garden. At the far end, against the wall, there was a tall slender pear tree in fullest, richest bloom; it stood perfect, as though becalmed against the jade-green sky. Bertha couldn't help feeling, even from this distance, that it had not a single bud or a faded petal."

The pear tree symbolises beauty, especially beauty of Bertha's blissful life. "And she seemed to see on her eyelids the lovely pear tree with it's wide open blossoms as a symbol of her own life."

Bertha sees the blooming pear tree in the garden as a symbol of her blissful happiness and her friendship with Pearl. However, when Bertha's life falls apart in the end, the tree is the same, showing that Bertha was not really connected to the beauty of the pear tree and was simply kidding herself. "But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still."

But it could also be seen as a sign that all beauty is not lost. Perhaps Bertha will move on to a richer and fuller life in the future. Or maybe she will choose to ignore her discovery, and continue to live in ignorant bliss.

"Your lovely pear tree-pear tree-pear tree!"

-Rasphal, Cecelia, Jack, Viv