Genre Portfolio III--The Death of the Moth

III. Essay
The Death of the Moth
http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91d/chap2.html

In this essay, as the title says, the author described the death of the moth. The moth fought against the death bravely but finally failed. 

At the first paragraph, we can find no sign of death. Actually, the scene described is very lively: “Such vigour came rolling in from the fields and the down beyond that it was difficult to keep the eyes strictly turned upon the book.” At first, all the things, both living creatures and non-living natural scenes, are full of vigor. In such a happy background, the moth danced “the queer spectacle”. But the life span of a moth is as short as one single day. Soon the moth fell”on to his back on the window sill” and after severe struggling, the moth “succeeded in righting himself” but also used up his strength. The description of the moth’s spry dancing makes the audience more shocked by the soon-coming loss of life. 

Death is a regular topic in many essays; people describe the deaths of all kinds of living things. But this essay is especially excellent. There are many reasons for its excellence. I noticed two details which may give some reasons. First one is the last sentence, “The moth having righted himself now lay most decently and uncomplainingly composed. O yes, he seemed to say, death is stronger than I am.” Woolf used “decently” and “uncomplainingly” here, which is not only to describe the moth’s pose but also his spiritual state. Though the little moth can never defeat death, he tried his best and did not let the extreme power of death conquer him until the end. His death is respectful because he used his final strength to fight against the death. And it seems that the death was somewhat shocked that the moth managed to right himself before dying. The second detail is the author’s lifting a pencil. She lifted her pencil right before the moth’s death but she did not have time to give the moth a hand. These details remind me of Woolf’s life. Pencil here is a symbol of a helping force. Woolf committed suicide at the end of her life. According to her letter left for her husband, she did struggle to live on but ran out of her strength. I guess, the action of lifting a pencil may indicate that there was someone or herself who wanted to help her get out of the maze. However, just like “I” did not have time to help the moth, that person did not give her a hand in time to save her.