Death of the Moth by Virginia Woolf is an allegory about life. I found this work interesting because it is about suicide, and the author herself was dealing with suicide and killed herself a year before this was published, so I'm sure the story was very reflective of her inner feelings. The tone is thoughtful yet there is also an underlying lugubrious tone. The story is very symbolic of the writer's own struggle with death. The moth symbolizes a person, or more likely Woolf herself. The author details the moth's journey to death and its fight to stay alive. This depicts the lugubrious tone because of the imagery of the moth's struggle and the narrator's description of the moth's helplessness against death.
Woolf most likely chose a moth to represent human life because she wanted to show that we are as helpless as moths are when it comes to death and that no living creature can escape death. She chose the daytime moth because they represent someone who is alive and yet not an official daytime creature. This also adds to the suicide theme because people who are suicidal do not fit with those who are happy to be alive, which the author symbolizes as butterflies; but they are not dead, which Woolf symbolizes as nighttime moths. The setting is September, which symbolizes being on the verge of death, but still living. It is a beautiful sunny day, which is ironic because the subject is death. I think that the author chose to make this the setting because she wanted to convey that those who are dealing with suicide can appear to be normal and happy like everyone else.
Works Cited:
Woolf, Virginia. "Death of the Moth." 1942. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Woolf most likely chose a moth to represent human life because she wanted to show that we are as helpless as moths are when it comes to death and that no living creature can escape death. She chose the daytime moth because they represent someone who is alive and yet not an official daytime creature. This also adds to the suicide theme because people who are suicidal do not fit with those who are happy to be alive, which the author symbolizes as butterflies; but they are not dead, which Woolf symbolizes as nighttime moths. The setting is September, which symbolizes being on the verge of death, but still living. It is a beautiful sunny day, which is ironic because the subject is death. I think that the author chose to make this the setting because she wanted to convey that those who are dealing with suicide can appear to be normal and happy like everyone else.
Works Cited:
Woolf, Virginia. "Death of the Moth." 1942. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.