The main female character who is represented in this story
is Bertha Young. Katherine Mansfield, using the third-person limited point of view,
tells the story from her perspective, and thus we are able to gain an insight into her
thoughts, feelings, motivations and frustrations. As we are presented with her character
at the start, it is clear that she is experiencing a period of happiness and "bliss," in
spite of her age:
Although Bertha Young was thirty she still had
moments like this when she wanted to run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and
off the pavement, to bowl a hoops, to throw something up in the air and catch it again,
or to stand still and laugh at--nothing--at nothing,
simply.
She resents the fact
that she feels unable to express her "bliss" without being labelled by society as being
drunk, and possibly arrested for it. Note how this feeling of happiness causes her to
see the world through rose-tinted spectacles. During the dinner party, for example, she
seems to find joy in everything. Bertha herself seems to make the pear tree a symbol of
herself and of her friendship with Pearl:
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.
However, in spite of
this image of perfection that Bertha thinks symbolises her life, there are hints in the
text that there are issues in her life. Her nanny clearly dominates her daughter,
restricting her time with her, and also her marriage is shown to lack passion, although
repeatedly Bertha stresses that they are "good pals."
At
the end of the story, Bertha experiences a rude awakening as she is forced to confront
her husband's duplicity in his affair with Pearl. After witnessing Harry kiss Pearl
Fulton, and Bertha's cry of despair and uncertainty of what is to happen next, the last
sentence of the story returns to the pear tree:
But the pear tree was as lovely as ever and as
full of flower and as
still.
This highly
interesting symbol perhaps represents the way that appearances can be deceiving, and
that under the so-called "perfect" exterior lie a whole host of varying emotions that
are not acceptable to be revealed. Bertha at the end of this story is a woman who has
had her "bliss" punctured, perhaps irrevocably, by the reality of human nature, and thus
perhaps can be said to be forced to become more mature and experienced about life, love
and her marriage.
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