Social Constraints of Women in The Garden Party and Bliss

For centuries, society has placed strict limitations for both genders to follow. Men and women have specific roles and expectation placed upon them by society and any deviation could impact them negatively. Men are the intellectual and workers and women are the beautiful, delicate and child raising house wives. The rigid roles that women are forced into leads many to being trapped in a role they do not want and causes some one them to feel the need to break free from conformity and look beyond the social class and roles dictated to them by society. In Katherine Mansfield’s short story “Bliss”, the main character, Bertha, feels constraint by the rigid constraints placed on women in this society and they prevent her from freely expressing her titular “bliss”. In another of Mansfield’s short stories, her story “The Garden Party”, depicts the main character Laura struggling to conform to the gender roles that dictate appropriate behavior for men and women and her social class. Bertha struggles with the idea that women are delicate beings while Laura struggles with the constraint of male and female interactions. Both women struggle to break free from these rigid constraints imposed upon them to freely be themselves but are unable to fully shake them off.

Bliss’s main character, Bertha, resentment towards the constraint of society is noticeable from the beginning of the story, as these constraints prevent her from expressing the strong emotion, the “bliss”, that she is feeling. Bertha states that even though she is a thirty-year-old woman, she still has moments where she wants to “run instead of walk, to take dancing steps on and off the pavement […] or to stand still and laugh at — nothing — at nothing, simply” but cannot as it is viewed as wrong for women to act so childlike. Mansfield’s use of the word “although” proposes that the expressions of strong emotions are inappropriate for an adult woman in society and that it goes against what is considered expected and polite behaviour. Bertha feels a sense of restriction because she is unable to freely express her feelings to the world and by extension herself. Bertha is disdainful of social convention and thinks “how idiotic civilisation is” (Mansfield, Pg.1) at it places restrictions on emotional freedom women have. She feels so constraint by the rules that it manifests physically as she states that she cannot “bear the tight clasp of” her coat and wonders “what is the point of having a body” if it is to be kept like a “rare, rare fiddle […] locked in a case”. This proposes that the social constraints are overstepping on Bertha’s freedom and makes her unable to do what she wants with her body as her body does not really belong to her.

Katherine Mansfield’s “The Garden Party” tells the story of a young woman, Laura, who is hosting a party in her middle-class home. Laura struggles to conform to the gender roles that dictate appropriate behavior for men and women. The interactions between men and women were heavily controlled by society, and it still is today. Anything that diverged from what was considered polite could have negative ramifications on the women, sullying her in the eyes of society. Laura struggles because, unlike the rest of her family, she is comfortable is dealing with the men working for her family. On the day of the party, Laura is the one sent to deal with the men as she is the only one that is considered “presentable” in her family and she is artistic. Mansfield says “but Meg could not possibly go and supervise the men. She had washed her hair before breakfast … Jose…always came down in a silk petticoat and a kimono jacket” (Mansfield, Pg. 1). Laura’s artistic abilities set her apart from her mother and her tow sisters and her abilities are used as an excuse to disguise the other women’s discomfort or inability to go speak with the men.

There is also a difference in what constitutes being presentable for both genders. For middle-class women, like Bertha and Laura, the standard for decency is higher than it is for working-class men. The workmen in “The Garden Party” are described as “four men in their shirt-sleeves stood grouped together on the garden path”. Even though the men are dressed casually, they are not considered indecent and this points to a higher expectation of decency in women. So, in addition to the pressure to be physically presentable, Laura also feels the necessity to prove herself socially or intellectually to the workmen, thus, she “tries to look severe and even a little bit short-sighted as she came up to them” (Mansfield 2).

While Bertha and Laura both live privileged lives, they are also barred from fully experiencing certain part of life because of social attitude towards the women in that time period. Women of Laura and Bertha’ station are often associated with being physically and mentally weak and are often discouraged from doing anything considered to strenuous for them. Bertha’s comparison of herself with a rare instrument in a case in the story “Bliss”, reflects the idea that she needs to be physically protected from the world. In the “Garden Party”, Laura’s status is what keeps her protected from the world. Mansfield places the Sheridan’s house on a hill which suggests that not only do the Sheridan’s live above others but they also appear to be isolated from those who live around them, namely their poorer neighbours. As a result, both women do not really understand the world around them.

Mansfield’s short stories, “Bliss” and “The Garden Party”, represent how society trapped women with their social constraint. Women are somewhat isolated from the real world. While both stories depict the constraints women are faced with, Mansfield tries to show two different takes on it.