ipl-logo

Death Of The Moth By Virginia Woolf

723 Words3 Pages

In the story The Death of the Moth, Virginia Woolf illustrates the universal struggle between life and death. Woolf portrays in passing the valiance of the struggle, of the fight of life against death, but she acknowledges as well the difficulty of this struggle. Woolf’s purpose in writing this essay is to depict the patheticness of life in the face of death, and to garner respect for the awesome power that death has over life. Throughout the essay Woolf adopts a calm, observant, and sophisticated tone in order to present her message and experiences to her readers through imagery, symbolism, and her use of personification. While writing The Death of the Moth, Woolf was concerned with what seems to be the “shift” that was from Intrinsic to Modernism. To set boundaries at the beginning of her essay, Woolf displays a shift of energy, the force that animates her and the moth, through fresh and vivid imagery. The imagery of that very morning …show more content…

The message in the essay once the symbolism of the moth is understood begins to become quite clear. The moth flies, side to side on the window pane and then settles once more as it’s surroundings continued unaware of its movements. Woolf uses this to make the connection between the moth and our everyday lives. It shows how although we may stop, stand still, or pass away life will continue for everyone and everything without our presence. At first, Woolf doesn't care much about the moth, but later feels sympathy towards it as the moth struggled on its back trying to get upright, she helps it and it eventually dies in that position. After the passing of the moth, Woolf states, “Just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now as strange" (57). This shows that Woolf believes that life, such as death, is recognized by all and no matter what one person tries to do it cannot be

Show More
Related

Comparing Death Of A Moth By Virginia Woolf And Annie Dillard

574 Words | 3 Pages

Whereas, Virginia Woolf, however, seems to perceive life as pointless, meaningless, and reveals that life’s struggle with death is inevitable. Woolf personifies the moth by describing the moth as “him” versus “it” in order to showcase the aspect of life of all living things and not just the moth. Wolfe describes the life of a moth flying across a window seal then the second time the moth seemed either “so stiff or so awkward that he could only flutter to the bottom of the windowpane; and when he tried to fly across it he failed”. She then describes watching the moth’s futile attempts to fly across the window only to stop momentarily then to “start again without considering the reason of its failure”.

Read More

The Allusion Of The Butterfly In Whila Cather's O Pioneers

86 Words | 1 Pages

“The butterfly is nature’s way of reminding us that there is hope in grief when a caterpillar is no more and the butterfly exists in ultimate freedom and beauty.” These words of Tanya Lord perfectly describe the allusion of butterflies that caught my attention while reading the book O Pioneers! By Whila Cather. There are two main setting in which butterflies appear throughout the novel, after doing research I found many interesting facts of butterflies, and was able to better understand why Cather used this allusion.

Read More

In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

1564 Words | 7 Pages

Butterflies are exceedingly beautiful. They gracefully fly as the sun beams on them endlessly. Their delicate wings allow them to be “free”. In Julia Alvarez’s novel “In The Time of The Butterflies”, four sisters (The Mirabals) from the Dominican Republic, encounter many obstacles. The novel takes place during Rafael Trujillo’s rule.

Read More

In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

969 Words | 4 Pages

In the “Time of the Butterflies” is a hidden propaganda novel during the cold war when Catholicism and the western world heavily opposed the evils of Communism. In her novel Julia Alvarez convinces us otherwise through depiction of an atrocious dictatorship and exceptional everyday freedom fighters. Through this she develops a truth to our understanding of an enemy, and highlights the faults in our own faith. In pg.53, the Catholic Church is in full support of the dictator and paints him as a holy saint, a Jesus Christ figure.

Read More

In The Time Of The Butterflies By Julia Alvarez

1353 Words | 6 Pages

One of the strongest traits to possess is not courage nor intellect, but rather love for one another. The novel, In the time of the Butterflies, by Julia Alvarez, perfectly illustrates the capabilities love can accomplish. Love is shown to bond families like the Mirabel sisters together and evoke emotion that encourage others to sympathize with them. The stories about the Mirabel sister’s children, husbands, and themselves, paved a path to ending Trujillo’s regime. The emphasis of love that the sisters and their families share is prevalent throughout the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, as it influences them to protect and sacrifice for one another, which ultimately inspires a revolt to successfully end Trujillo’s regime.

Read More

Human Condition In Gwen Harwood's Poems Father And Child

527 Words | 3 Pages

The multifaceted nature of the human condition encompasses all aspects of human life at both an individual and collective level and delves into the notion of humanity and the values it comprises. Gwen Harwood’s poems’ “Father and Child” and “Mother who gave me life,” and Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” (1998), explore the dynamic and often contradictory nature of the human condition. Harwood portrays the transience of time and inescapable truth of mortality, illustrating the ever changing complexion of the human experience. Whereas, Jackson examines the capability of all humans to be violent and cruel while questioning whether such tendencies can be masked by a constrictive society’s heartless ideals. Harwood explores the brevity

Read More

My Grandfather In The Moths, By Helena Maria Viramontes

1217 Words | 5 Pages

For the past five years, I have watched my amiable grandmother unconditionally care for my ailing grandfather. My grandfather was diagnosed with alzheimer's and dementia. At the earlier stages of his sickness, I remember visiting for Easter when I was much younger. My parents told my brothers and I that grandpa probably will not remember our names but to be patient with him. I did not think too much of it since, at that time, my grandpa seemed to be his normal self.

Read More

The Death Of A Moth Annie Dillard Analysis

158 Words | 1 Pages

In my opinion what Dillard was trying to say in this story was that death is not the end. While the moth was burning Dillard compared it to a certain object and even compared it to a person, "Only glowing within, like a building

Read More

Symbolism In All Quiet On The Western Front

680 Words | 3 Pages

Despite the seriousness of the war, the narrator perceives the universe as a bright ball traveling through space. In the midst of war's devastation, the butterfly signifies the promise of beauty and

Read More

Death Of The Moth Compare And Contrast

966 Words | 4 Pages

For Woolf, the moth symbolizes herself. She sees herself and her life in the moth. In the beginning of her essay, Woolf describes day moths as “hybrid creatures.” She herself feels as such because of the societal expectations for women in the 1900’s. Woolf expresses that she cannot be a true writer because she is not a man.

Read More

Comparing Dickinson And Whitman's Poetry

932 Words | 4 Pages

To begin, it’s important for the two poets to led the readers to understand the context about death behind their poems and how it has inspired them to write about it. Throughout Dickinson’s life, she has experienced death in many ways and forms: with that, death has made a great impact in her writings. In Dickinson’s poem, “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –,” Dickinson looks into the physical procedure of dying and how it affects not just herself, but others as well. When Dickinson was dying on her deathbed, she describes the fly as a figure of the theme death itself, as the wings of the fly basically cuts off the speaker of the poem. For Whitman, he has experienced death in the time of the Civil War.

Read More

Summary Of Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

750 Words | 3 Pages

Dillards purpose is the most important part of this essay, it’s to show that even in death someone can be beautiful, and they will burn in our memories forever. This meaning or purpose is very hidden in the essay, but it is found when she describes how the moth lights up, and how she “burns for two hours” just like one would burn in our memories. She is very plain and sad, but when she saw the beauty of the moth and its flame she was amazed and no longer sad about the death; she appreciated the moth more this way just like how we appreciate someone more after they are gone. The author uses something simple like a moth but the true meaning of this essay is much deeper then it

Read More

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Summary

694 Words | 3 Pages

Independent Reading Exercise: Picture Books The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), written and illustrated by Eric Carle, this story starts with a tiny egg on a leaf. The tiny egg hatches into a small very hungry caterpillar. On Monday, the caterpillar ate through one apple and Tuesday through Friday he ate even more fruit. After eating Monday through Friday, he was still hungry.

Read More

The Gothic Elements In Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven

996 Words | 4 Pages

An air of gloom, anguish and despair, with a hint of melancholy and a feathery apparition haunting the mind of a young scholar who is burdened by bereaved love and has secluded himself behind his chamber door, in a room full of bittersweet memories. Such is the work of Edgar Allan Poe, specifically, that of The Raven. Published on the 29th of January 1845, The Raven instantly became a hit and Poe’s most famous work. Oftentimes when discussing the gothic genre, many may immediately think of Poe, but in which sense is his work truly gothic? In the Raven, Poe conforms to a plurality of conventions characterised as typically gothic in order to effectively illustrate what effect the loss of a loved one can have on the mind.

Read More

Street Haunting Virginia Woolf Analysis

1071 Words | 5 Pages

Woolf makes a point to disengage with her environment. She mandates that she not allow herself to become too absorbed with any one person or their story. Instead she ought to treat each moment as a if it were fleeting, saying “Let us dally a little longer, be content still with surfaces only” (2) This is instruction is literal, Woolf believes that engaging with her setting will remove the joy from vapid displays of beauty. She even compares such an experience to a sugary diet, lacking in nutrition but desirable nevertheless (2).

Read More

More about Death Of The Moth By Virginia Woolf

Related Topics

Open Document