Later Essays: Death of a Moth

Later Essays:

Death of A Moth

This essay had a great deal of effect on me toward the end. At the beginning of the essay Virginia Woolf did a very good job of differentiating between moths that fly during the day and those that are primarily nocturnal. I had never thought before of a moth as a “hybrid creature.” Woolf’s description of them being ”neither gay like butterflies not somber like their own species” gives the reader a more in depth view of the moth. Without this comparison I would have never thought of a single moth on such a personal basis. The detail in which she describes the wings of the Moth are more beautiful that one would normally think this flying insect to be. The wings being described as “narrow hay-coloured” makes me think of simplicity and nature rather than what I would normally consider a dirty tan. The wings being “fringed with a tassel”, further pushes the illusion that this moth’s wing are comparable to a beautifully woven rug, or cushion of some kind. Woolf does a good job of explaining the setting that the story takes place in. First, she gives background on the moth, then she describes the scene in which the story takes place. This pleasant mid-September morning was described so well that I pictured myself there, breathing the mild air. The rooks journey round the tree tops is an important detail because it illustrates the freedom that lies just outside. Being an “annual festivity” allows the reader to assume that this is another typical mid-September day. There is nothing out of the ordinary. This moth was surely not the first to be stuck in a windowpane. Finding a dead moth on my window sill is not extraordinarily uncommon. I have even seen them get trapped in-between my window and blinds. Virginia Woolf’s description of watching this moth die leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth. She personifies the life of the moth to a degree that makes me feel guilty for not sticking out a pencil, or opening the blinds when I knew the moth to be stuck and without hope. Even though the narrator does not help the moth in the end, and the creature dies, there is a sensitivity that is felt. The most depressing yet honest line in the essay, in my opinion, is “there was something marvelous as well as pathetic about him.” In the same paragraph the narrator goes on to state the obvious, no matter how insensitive it may sound “the thought of all that life might have been had he been born in any other shape caused on to view his simple activities with a kind of pity.” This is of course, referring to his continued efforts to pick himself up and fly away. If he only had been created as something more powerful such as a human being. That will to live would have served a greater purpose. Being a moth is to an extent, insignificant. No matter how many times he failed, he seemed to refuse to give up. Eventually of course he does give in to death, which is one of the most powerful statements. The essay contains a bit of irony when the moth finally succumbs to death. As insignificant as the moth may be, it dies. As powerful and indestructible as human beings believe that we are, we also die. In the end how can we say that moths are more insignificant that us when, both of use have no way of defeating death?