The Two Birds in Mr. Gee's Life

Before even reading D.H. Lawrence’s Two Blue Birds the title immediately caught my attention. Blue birds are a symbol of love and happiness yet ironically Blue Jay’s are rather mean and agressive birds. When I was little I used to watch these birds fight and never once did I associate a Blue Jay with love or happiness. But for some reason we as a society have decided that blue birds, maybe not exactly Blue Jays represent these two longings that everyone craves in life.

To give a brief explanation of the story, a couple (Mr. and Mrs. Gee) that is best friends decide to split up after roughly 12 years of marriage. But the weird thing is they were never really a married couple. They were best friends and loved each other’s company until they were married. Once wed, everything in their relationship went downhill. Mrs. Gee began spending the winters in the south and Mr. Gee would stay at their home in England write his way out of debt. He did this with his young secretary who devoted her life to him. They did not have an affair, but when Mrs. Gee returns home tries to push adultery onto her husband. She first tries to do this because she notices “a couple of blue birds of happiness” where her husband and his secretary are working one day (489).

The blue birds symbolize happiness at the moment but the wife takes that message and twists it. She pushes something that is not present onto both her husband and his secretary. The poor young girl does not know how to handle this and in return quits something she loves to do. The wife may have thought she was freeing the young secretary, but actually ends up inflicting tremendous pain onto her. Like the blue birds I have witnessed in my life, which are extremely aggressive. Mrs. Gee turns out to be this aggressive blue bird for no apparent reason to readers. She doesn’t understand how her husband’s secretary could devote so much time and energy to someone and something and not get anything in return. She also doesn’t understand how her husband “can expect two blue birds of happiness to flutter around his feet” (493). Although I would argue that Mrs. Gee is not happy, which is why she acts out in such a way towards Mr. Gee and his secretary.