At the beginning of “Bliss,” Bertha's happiness is described in a rather hyperbolic way, inviting readers to wonder why, exactly, such simple things please her so much. In the following passage, she has just returned home and now admires a display of fruit that she has arranged as a decoration for her dinner party:
When she had finished with them and had made two pyramids of these bright round shapes, she stood away from the table to get the effect—and it really was most curious. For the dark table seemed to melt into the dusky light and the glass dish and the blue bowl to float in the air. This, of course, in her present mood, was so incredibly beautiful.
She began to laugh.
"No, no. I'm getting hysterical." And she seized her bag and coat and ran upstairs to the nursery.
These are fairly ordinary interior decorations, arranged in a conventional way, but Bertha views them as "incredibly beautiful”—a clear overstatement or hyperbole. To Bertha, filled with an excitement whose source still seems obscure, the decorations seem to exist outside of the realm of the everyday, invested with near-supernatural qualities.
Later in the story, it becomes apparent that Bertha’s excitement stems from her own desires: her infatuation with Pearl Fulton, whom she is looking forward to seeing at the party. But instead of probing those desires, and associating her “bliss” with them, Bertha can only project her feelings onto her surroundings, which subsequently appear heightened (and prompt her to think hyperbolically). Confined to her role as a housewife, Bertha is deeply embedded in the domestic sphere, and unable to fully access the version of herself that exists outside of that role.
But by pulling back from the hyperbole—reprimanding herself for becoming “hysterical”—Bertha seems to recognize the potential danger signaled by this state of uncontrolled “bliss.” Subconsciously, she knows that she must temper her feelings in order to fit herself into polite society, in which extravagant displays of emotion (especially between two women) are frowned upon. Yet throughout the story, Bertha chafes against this mandate, providing the story with a sense of inner conflict.
