Author’s hints to the solution of the story “Bliss” by Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp (1888 – 1923), who took the pseudonym Kathleen Murry, is New Zealand’s most famous writer. “Her creative years were burdened with loneliness, illness, jealousy and alienation – all this reflected from her work in the bitter depiction of marital and family relationships. Her short stories are noted for their use of stream of consciousness and sharp portraits of characters” [2; 1].
The story “Bliss” is a beautiful, charming work of fiction with bright characters whose traits and colourations are revealed to the reader by a rich vocabulary, which contains many epithets and comparisons. The central character, Bertha Young, describes herself as “a woman, radiant, with smiling, trembling lips, with big dark eyes...” [1; 200]. Another character who plays an especially significant role in the course of the story’s events is Bertha’s acquaintance – “a “find” of Bertha’s” [1; 202] – Miss Pearl Fulton – “they had met at the c...