Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield and Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

Bliss and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield and Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin

On studying the texts Bliss and Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield and

Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin I have associated all the stories with

a sense of female repression. All the short stories feature a main

female character and this character is being repressed in various ways

such as by another character or their lives in general.

In all the stories the awareness of repression appears towards the end

mainly due to an event that has taken place. This event brings forth a

realisation of their lives, which is so far from the rest of the

story.

The realisation that occurs in ‘Bliss’ is that Bertha finds out that

her husband, Harry, is having an affair. Throughout the rest of the

short story Bertha appears overly happy and joyous. This is shown

through Mansfield’s choice of language predominantly at the start of

the story. Examples of this are things such as ‘she wanted to run

instead of walk…’ and ‘…is there no way you can express it without

being “drunk and disorderly”. These are examples of where extreme

happiness is shown, and she mentioned how this happiness could not

possibly be explained without seeming ‘drunk and disorderly’.

The extreme happiness has then been contrasted with the confusion,

which is brought on at the end by the affair. ‘But the pear tree was

as lovely as ever and as full of flower and as still.’ This is how

Mansfield ends the story as the ‘still’ part symbolises her life, as

the pear tree does. Her life is inert and has come to a halt, as she

feels numb. The numbness is also symbolised by the word ‘still’ as

when you are numb you generally cannot move.

This shows how the act of knowing about t...

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... wanted to ask…’ showing she

didn’t ask but would have liked to. She is being restrained by the

nanny into having a full motherly relationship with her child.

One example of how Harry subdues her is how he bullies her into

believing Pearl is a dull, boring, and a typical blonde. Harry seems

to have obtained the ability to demystify and trick Bertha. Which is a

sign he has been doing this for a while and he has become quite expert

at it. I think Mansfield did this to prepare the reader slightly for

what is going to happen at the end n the revelation that is the

affair.

The theme of repression therefore runs throughout these stories all

written by female authors that have a female view on the world. It is

typical of female characters to make men out to be the cruel

characters and the women who are the vulnerable main characters who

are being repressed.