Korb has a master's degree in English literature and creative writing and has written for a wide variety of educational publishers. In the following essay, she focuses on Bertha's feelings of bliss as a way of understanding the story.

In 1919, Katherine Mansfield wrote in a letter to a friend:

O this Spring—It makes me long for happiness. That is so vague. Each year I think—this year I shall not feel it so keenly—but I feel it more. Why are human beings the only ones who do not put forth fresh buds—exquisite flowers and leaves? . . . Really, on some of these days one is tired with bliss. I long to tell someone—to feel it immediately shared—felt without my asking 'do you feel it?'—Do you know what I mean?

Within the year, Mansfield had channeled...