Katherine Mansfield's "Bliss": "The Rare Fiddle" as emblem of the political and sexual alienation of woman

Papers on Language and Literature, Summer 1999 by D'Arcy, Chantal Cornut-Gentille

The mysterious link and almost silent communication established between Bertha and Miss Fulton seem to point, at first, to a fundamental break with Marxism to become instead the enactment of a woman-centered position-the radical-feminist precept of class categorization on the basis of GENDER. This concept is somehow encapsulated in the following passage in the text: "But Bertha knew, suddenly, as if the longest, most intimate look had passed between them-as if they had said to each other: `You too?'-that Pearl Fulton . . . was feeling just what she was feeling" (206). Elated and excited, the young hostess is waiting for her companion-"sister"-to "give the sign." However, the unexpected denouement, when Bertha suddenly perceives that her precious guest is a traitor and the cause for the instant crumbling of all her bliss, violently brings the reader round to the realization that ideal heterosexual and/or sisterly love are impossible feats in such a social set up, especially considering that, under the combined oppression of capitalism and patriarchy, women-married or not-are no more than "commodities," exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition. The rare fiddle or over-protected wife is vanquished by another woman-- a woman from the outer world who in turn, by becoming Harry's mistress, converts herself into yet another "commodity" for Bertha's husband.

Only with this perspective in mind can the reader decipher the otherwise rather obscure "signs" provided by the author through the echoing imagery of the pear tree, cats and ever brighter silver color. The first clue is furnished when Bertha internally perceives the pear tree as a symbol of her own lifea healthy and blooming fruit tree, inert within the walled garden and, thus, always at hand to be contemplated and admired. A blurred replica of this picture can be discerned in Bertha's choice of evening wear and, while the monkey theme of Mrs. Norman Knight's coat serves both as a backing for the general tone and atmosphere of the small gathering and as an indirect banter on the clownish guests themselves, the slightly disturbing sight of die silent and furtive cats disappears from the hostess's mind.

Miss Fulton makes a late entry and proceeds directly with the rest of the party to the dining table. In a passage of fine ambivalence, Bertha's impassioned awareness of her "star guest" works in terms of a kind of emotional apprehension rather than in a visual cataloguing of a striking woman. As with the similarly conceived Mrs. Kember in "At the Bay," Pearl Fulton is surrounded by an aura of coldness and lifelessness, while her aloofness and, although not articulated as such, her unnaturalness are greatly emphasized. Very soon, the apparently unconnected details of the guest's elusive attitude, noiselessness, heavy eyelids, paleness of complexion and silver-colored attire all combine to underpin the initial picture of the stealthy grey feline-now more discernibly a she-cat "dragging its belly" (203) . But there were two cats. Could the black cat, which Bertha described as "a shadow trailing after" be acknowledging his desire for the grey cat shrouded in culinary small talk? The young hostess candidly takes Harry's remarks on "his shameless passion for the white flesh of lobster and . . . ices-green and cold like the eyelids of Egyptians" (207) as evidence of her husband's contentment. But these words could also be understood as muffled references to Pearl Fulton's white complexion, her heavy eyelids and apparent coldness or remoteness of manner. From then on, references to the pear tree and the color silver are infiltrated everywhere in the text until the climactic ending when the mysterious link which Bertha sensed between herself and Miss Fulton is revealed to spring from the pear tree-the solid fruit tree which now becomes an incarnation of Harry. Like "silver flowers" (208), the women can only bloom through, or thanks to, HIM. Hence, at the end of the story the whole picture seems to have been somewhat reshuffled for, even though the grey cat still characterizes Miss Fulton, the pear tree now metaphorically represents Harry while the black cat clearly reflects the heroine's own lack of identity. In other words, the trilogy of the tree and two cats has suddenly become fully emblematic of women's predicament in a patriarchal society: in a world which idealizes women while giving them no material, political9 or emotional support, women like Bertha struggle to gain identity through the roles of wife and mother. However, such women are made almost invisible. Their emotional lives are negated, their work is "no-work," and their voices in contemporary debates are ignored.lo Bertha is made to experience this invisibility in the core of her selfhood. The narrative strategy of the black cat can therefore be understood as reflecting her experience of not being real, or not existing-she is a mere shadow of a person. For her part, the dazzling and silvery Miss Fulton embodies the equally disturbing fact that women, in such a social set up, only shine or become momentarily discernible when, as denounced by Mary Wollstonecraft, the voluptuous passion of men "places them on thrones" (qtd. in Todd 96). In other words, at the height of youth women can obtain power, but this power derives exclusively from their physical charms and is therefore ephemeral. However, in both cases, whether in legal or illicit relations, the women cling to male support for attention and recognition.