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Bliss

What is happiness? Is it something that can even be defined? Is it an object, or a feeling, or is it a state of mind? Is happiness always with us, or does it come and go like the weather? Does happiness change who we are as people.....and is this change a positive one? All these questions arise when I was reading "Bliss" by Katherine Mansfield.
Bertha the main character has the life we all yearn for. A beautiful house with a yard and a great view, a husband who gave her a beautiful child, money to buy extravagant nothings, and a social life we all desire. Together with her husband, they would throw dinner parties for all their other well to do friends. Bertha felt satisfied with her life, in fact, she felt more than satisfied.....she had a feeling of "Bliss, absolute bliss!".
Throughout the story, Bertha expresses how the little things in life please her. She finds odd pleasure in arranging a bowl of fruit to coordinate with her new carpet in the dining-room. "I must have some purple ones to bring the carpet up to the table". I propose that initially Bertha finds pleasure in this coordination of fruit and carpet, and in merely occupying her time, but as the story unfolds, she gradually realizes that her perfect life is really not that satisfying and fulfilling as she would like it to be.
Bertha felt that "in her bosom there was a bright glowing place "that shower of little sparks coming from it". I feel that to others, Bertha looked like she had it all. However, this burning sensation she was experiencing was that of security in her life. She had warmth and clothes and love for both herself and her baby, but nothing that she could get any gratification from in her life. She just lived comfortably day by day. This was all she knew of happiness.
Bertha was happy, but in a sense that she had stability, not that she was fulfilled in her life. Throughout the story, Bertha makes references to a pear tree in the yard. "There was a tall, slender pear tree in the...