Death

2 Pages 475 Words

In Virginia Woolf’s essay “ The Death of the Moth,” she is suggesting no matter how much energy one has now they will eventually die. I feel this essay works because of the reality of her words. Her point is well stated in the symbolism that she chooses to use. In explaining her essay she uses the moth as a symbol for life, she also uses the window as life and then death, next she uses energy to symbol the change from child to adult.
Throughout the essay Woolf is explaining the moth standing for life. When she firsts sees the moth all she can think about is how life is so simple and energetic. Woolf wonders if while this moth is flying around the window trying to find a way to escape, it is in someway a little pathetic and lifeless. Woof states, “ He was little or nothing but life” (Woolf 771). This explains why she is so intrigued by the acts the moth is doing at the moment.
Woolf used the window the moth is trapped in as a symbol for life and then it turns to death. This is because while the moth is wondering how to get out of the window it looses all its energy and then dies right where just minutes earlier it was full of energy. After all the dancing Woolf sits and thinks about why things are happening the way they are. Why was the moth all the sudden dying? She could not explain what was going on except for that is seemed that “death was stronger then her” (Woolf 773). This expression only goes on to say that Woolf may have been more afraid of death after seeing the moth die in such a way that was not fair.
Woolf then goes on to say that energy all together represents the change from childhood to adulthood. This means that when Woolf first sees the moth she thinks of it as a child full of energy and ready to dance all over the place. As the moth is dancing it is turning into an adult and loosing energy every minute. Woolf explains, that she almost tried to help the moth but then decided against it because t...