Preview

Death of Moth

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
389 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Death of Moth
In “The Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf uses elements such as the tone, sentence structure, and the use of motif to connect the theme as being the paradox of death and the coherence of the moth with the true essence of life.
Woolf utilizes a moderate tone in explaining how the struggle of the moth is affected to the role of life. She uses this element to display her undertone theme by explaining that the moth has no hope from being isolated from the world by a window pane to express that the moth’s “single activities” was with “a kind of pity.” Woolf depicts the moth as a simple “insignificant little creature” flying in circles until the moth reaches its inevitable death. The author’s attitude of accepting death implies that the moth had no chance of survival and it reflects to how “death is stronger than [the moth is].”
The author structures her sentence by describing the moth’s power and inevitability of the death. Woolf brings out the importance of the assets of the moth’s death. The author utilizes sentence structures when she expresses that “one could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by [the moth’s] tiny legs against an oncoming doom which, had [the moth] chosen, have submerged an entire city, but masses of human beings; nothing [the author] knew, had any chance against death.” Woolf was in bewilderment that death cannot be avoided and she could not do anything about it.
Woolf uses motif in her essay to emphasize the theme of the moth being “content with life.” She utilizes a recurring symbol of the aspect of true life as being energy. Woolf describes that she could “fancy that a thread of vital light” which represents the energy “[becoming] visible and that the moth was “little or nothing but life.” The author use of motif brought the true meaning of how the moth is the mystery of death and its existence while constrained from side to side of the window pane.
Virginia Woolf exploits the elements of tone, sentence structures, and the use of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    This piece is formulated through an allegory which exists on both a literal and figurative level. Virginia Woolf relates the struggles that a moth, which is so vulnerable to death to the everyday life of the human struggle. Implicitly, Woolf describes the moth to have value like individuals as they try to put a stop to death in the same sense like humans do.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Death of a Moth” is a short essay from the author, Annie Dillard, called Holy the Firm, and also one of her most personal essay that she’s ever written. It is about the burning moths, her belief in God, and acceptance of her faith to being a writer. She uses the death of the moths to tell us nature’s cycle of life. Everything is the same, human and animal, life and death. In the end, they will all end up like the moth being burned up by candle light.…

    • 634 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the death of a moth essay, Virginia wood uses the moth to symbolize to us humans and life in it. The message is once the symbolism of the moth is understood it quite clear. In the essay the moth flies from side to side on the window pane and it seemed that the moth was unaware of its movements. At first she doesn't care much about the moth, but later on she starts to feel sympathy for the moth as it lay on its back trying to get back up. She tried helping the Moth but then it dies in its position. She states '' Just as life had been strange a few minutes before. So death was now strange. '' This shows that she believes that life, even death, is recognized by us…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Plenty of things in the world are tangible. It’s the things we can’t touch like love, loyalty, freedom, friendship, and imagination that are concealed within everyone’s lives. These universal ideas can also be motifs; a motif is a dominant idea or distinctive feature in an artistic or literary composition. Motifs are used to teach a lesson to others throughout out dance, art, or literature. Motifs have been around and hidden in literature for a very long time. Almost 3,000 years ago there was a tale told by Homer, his story is now translated into an epic poem called The Odyssey. The story is based around king Odysseus and his 20 year voyage home…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    F451 Essay

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ignorance versus knowledge, The “Hearth and salamander”, and mirrors and the number 451, are a few great examples of theme and symbolism in this book.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In A Lesson before Dying the author uses the butterfly to represent growth, hope, and life. In the book the author also used the butterfly as a symbol of resurrection and rebirth. While reading the book both men had problems that needed fixed. The main topic is Jefferson’s wrongful conviction. Also, the butterfly mainly represents Jefferson after his execution.…

    • 200 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the novel, the audience can see the use of elements such as motifs and symbolism to convey a theme of technology. A motif being a dominant idea in an artistic or literary composition. Certain sequences in the novel show how technology manipulates nature and animals in cruel ways. In this universe, when an insect…

    • 1117 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the essay "The Death of the Moth" Virginia Woolf shows us a traditional battle between life and death. I think that all of us are moths at some points in our lives. We do something without thinking and results. The life is a journey towards death. That's why we should stop sometimes and think. Or everything will go through us and will finish nowhere. I think that this is a symbolism in Virginia Woolf's story about the moth.…

    • 151 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Symbolism In Tangerine

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Tangerine, a realistic fiction novel written by Edward Bloor, is about a dysfunctional family and the family’s dark secrets. Motif is a repeated element, such as an image, a symbol, or a theme in a work of literature, the motif of “sight” is used often in the novel and plays a huge role in the novel and symbolizes the harmful and positive affects of hiding the truth. Through the motif of “sight”, the main character, Paul, has a growing understanding of his friends, family, and himself.…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evening Hawk

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Warren sets the speaker of the poem in a foreboding scene that reminds him of the terrible and inevitable passage of time, and the great powers that govern it. He uses the Evening Hawk as a symbol of death and of these greater powers to do so. His use of simile also facilitates the communication of this foreboding…

    • 335 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    COMPARING MOTH AND CAVE

    • 550 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Extremely interesting how Virginia Woolf and Plato describe their point of views in their essays. Novice individuals as myself have a very hard time understanding these pieces. On the other side open minded individuals would have endless ideas on what both authors are trying to express. The Death of a Moth and Allegory of a Cave although a very bold and arguable statement have nothing in common, Virginia Woolf writes about a moth dying on a window sill while Plato describes humans chained in a burning cave.…

    • 550 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Totem Pole Project

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When I think of butterflies, I think of how beautiful and lovely they are. Although, sometimes I forget that they were once little caterpillars. Butterflies pass through a very challenging metamorphosis before they become these enchanting precious creatures. Just as a chrysalis can turn into divine butterfly, I too can reach all my goals in life. All the hard work I put into life will make me succeed, as all the hardships little caterpillars go through will make them into beautiful butterflies. I look up to butterflies because they work so hard to reach their goal. This is how butterflies represent my life.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    For example, silkworms serve as a heavily symbolic concept throughout the novel. They are utilised as either a motif or metaphor depending on the context. Dormant and silent, silkworms bear an uncanny resemblance to Tom Leyton, whom of which actively shuns the outside world in favour of the cocoon-like confinement that is his home. Like the silkworms, he too emerges as a so-called ‘free butterfly’, thanks to the influence of Joseph Davidson. In addition, the life span of a moth is relatively short – no more than a week or two at most. However, they are liberating times, symbolic of freedom and profound joy, and as such are worth every living moment.…

    • 347 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The cockroach Archy in the “Lesson of the Moth” has a certain opinion on the purpose of life. He believes in the poem that the purpose of life is to have some happiness, to live a long life, and to use your common sense. Through the poem Archy has a conversation with a moth and they tell each other about what they believe the purpose of life is. This showed that Archy’s prospective on life is very different from the moths.…

    • 441 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Lottery Symbolism

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Motifs are an important element to develop themes in stories. The magic behind motifs is that depending on how the author uses it they can help develop different themes in different ways. As seen in “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, where three different authors use death that can be interpreted to develop different themes.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays