"Bliss," written and published in 1918, is a modernist short story, associated with the literary modernism movement in which Katherine Mansfield played a leading role. In the early twentieth century, writers in America and Europe (including contemporaries of Mansfield like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf) helped to pioneer a new style of fiction that focused mainly on interiority and character psychology, attending closely to the substance of everyday lives and events and often jettisoning traditional narratives altogether. Very little seems to take place in "Bliss," at least in comparison to the sweeping plots found in 19th-century literature, with its focus on quests, romance, and history. Instead, "Bliss"—written in the close third-person—centers on Bertha's own reflections, observations, and emotions.
But Mansfield doesn't discount linear narrative altogether. "Bliss," like many of her other short stories, is carefully constructed, like a piece of classical music, with a clear narrative arc that imparts a certain effect. This narrative arc draws readers into Bertha's thought process and startles them with the climactic revelation at the end of the story (Harry's affair with Pearl Fulton).
In this way, "Bliss" reflects the conflict modernist writers often faced: as innovators, they sought to "make it new" (in the words of the modernist poet Ezra Pound), but they still consciously drew on traditional literary principles in order to create well-wrought works of art.
