Feminist Theories

English > Analysis
Literature > Comparative Literature
Women Studies > Feminism

Feminist Theories

An analysis of Katherine Mansfield's story "Bliss" and how it represents some of the key feminist theories outlined in Simone De Beauvoir's work "The Second Sex".

2,606 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2005 United Kingdom

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at Katherine Mansfield's work "Bliss" to identify if any of De Beauvoir's theories in "The Second Sex" can be drawn from it. It examines the relationship between Bertha and Miss Fulton and her husband Harry in "Bliss" in order to highlight some key theories of "The Second Sex" and demonstrates how "Bliss" can be viewed as a literary response to feminism which attempts to present women's oppression.

From the Paper:

"In the opening lines of Bliss, the reader is given an insight into Bertha's happy state and her analysis of her own blissful feelings: 'there is no way you can express it without being "drunk and disorderly." How idiotic civilisation is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?' This suggests that, as opposed to drunkenness and disorderliness, the accepted norms of behaviour for the female character are dignity and self-control. The reader is given the first clue as to a class prejudice, for Bertha is reflecting the viewpoint of her world and environment. It can therefore be assumed that she comes from a middle-class, bourgeois background."