Alexander Petrunkevitch’s story, “The Spider and the Wasp” carries a unique outlook on life through insightful diction that invokes one’s personal ideas and thoughts, while Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of a Moth” portrays a muted tone with familiar diction that makes it understandable. “The Spider and the Wasp” creatively sets a vivid scene with creative diction that lays out a deep purpose. The repetition of “victim”, and “hairs” helps display Petrunkevitch’s idea of fate vs freewill. Victim appears many times, creating an essence that the wasp is the antagonist while the tarantula is a feeble spider unable to defend themselves. Yet, the tarantula just does not attempt to defend itself. It knows its demise is looming, and appears that it
The morbid, melancholic mood of the story sets the atmosphere for author’s observant yet sympathetic tone. Woolf also uses many literary devices throughout the story to expand the reader’s interest, such as her use of diction in line ? “Pathetic” and her use of imagery in line ? “hay-colored wings”. Woolf also uses description to portray the moth’s appearance throughout his efforts to live., using flowing adjectives throughout. The story as a whole uses symbolism to depict life and death in a different light, using the moth’s representation of life trying desperately to avoid death, but ends in the eventual fate of decease.
Both Virginia Woolf and Annie Dillard are extremely gifted writers. Virginia Woolf in 1942 wrote an essay called The Death of the Moth. Annie Dillard later on in 1976 wrote an essay that was similar in the name called The Death of a Moth and even had similar context. The two authors wrote powerful texts expressing their perspectives on the topic of life and death. They both had similar techniques but used them to develop completely different views. Each of the two authors incorporate in their text a unique way of adding their personal experience in their essay as they describe a specific occasion, time, and memory of their lives. Woolf’s personal experience begins with “it was a pleasant morning, mid-September, mild, benignant, yet with a keener breath than that of the summer months” (Woolf, 1). Annie Dillard personal experience begins with “two summers ago, I was camping alone in the blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia” (Dillard, 1). Including personal experience allowed Virginia Woolf to give her own enjoyable, fulfilling and understandable perception of life and death. Likewise, Annie Dillard used the personal narrative to focus on life but specifically on the life of death. To explore the power of life and death Virginia Woolf uses literary tools such as metaphors and imagery, along with a specific style and structure of writing in a conversational way to create an emotional tone and connect with her reader the value of life, but ultimately accepting death through the relationship of a moth and a human. While Annie Dillard on the other hand uses the same exact literary tools along with a specific style and similar structure to create a completely different perspective on just death, expressing that death is how it comes. ...
Helena Maria Veramontes writes her short story “The Moths” from the first person point of view, placing her fourteen year old protagonist female character as a guide through the process of spiritual re-birth. The girl begins the story with a description of the debt she owes her Abuelita—the only adult who has treated her with kindness and respect. She describes her Apa (Father) and Ama (Mother), along with two sisters as if they live in the same household, yet are born from two different worlds. Her father is abusive, her mother chooses to stay in the background and her sisters evoke a kind of femininity that she does not possess. The girl is angry at her masculine differences and strikes out at her sisters physically. Apa tries to make his daughter conform to his strict religious beliefs, which she refuses to do and her defiance evokes abuse. The girl’s Abuelita is dying and she immerses herself in caring for her, partly to repay a debt and partly out of the deep love she has for her. As her grandmother lay dying, she begins the process of letting go. The moth helps to portray a sense of spirituality, re-birth and becomes, finally, an incarnation of the grandmother. The theme of the story is spiritual growth is born from human suffering.
Edgar Allan Poe is known for some of the most horrifying stories ever written through out time. He worked with the natural world, animals, and weather to create chilling literature. Two most notable thrillers are “The Cask of Amontillado” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”. Poe was infatuated with death, disfigurement, and dark characteristics of the world. He could mix characters, setting, theme,and mood in a way that readers are automatically drawn into reading. Both of these short stories have the same major aspects in common.
In the story “The Death of the Moth,” Virginia Woolf illustrates the universal struggle between life and death. She portrays in passing the valiance of the struggle, of the fight of life against death, but she determines as well the futility of this struggle. Virginia Woolf’s purpose in writing was to depict the patheticness of life in the face of death. Woolf’s conclusion, “death is stronger than I am,” provides the focus of her argument. Throughout the piece, she has built up her case, lead to reader emotional states its concept of the power of death. The piece would begi...
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: The Modern Library 1992
In Virginia Woolf’s story “The Death of the Moth,” the constant struggle between life and death is thoroughly laid out as a battle that will never, in the end, be won. Woolf concludes, "death is stronger than I am." to strongly prove that death will always be stronger than hope. Virginia describes what she sees outside of her window to depict the simplicity of life beyond her room. She explains the excitement of the rooks in the treetops and believed that the horses and men shared the same energy in which the moths patheticness has restricted itself. Woolf feels that she can connect to the moth in the sense that she too, is pathetic which is why she creates so much emotion towards it. Woolf feels that the moth is acting upon the energy of the outdoors however, it flies into the corners struggling to get out. The moth, anxious as can be “flew vigorously to one corner... fluttering from side to side”. Woolf’s choice of imagery for this piece creates a very personal feel as the reader can sit in Virginia’s place to visualize the struggle of the moth. Woolf attempted to save the moth as it struggled long and hard until she realized that death will always be the outcome. As the moth grasps for one last breath, she depicts her indifference through the phrase “I laid the pencil down,” as if she had given up on hope for
The world is full of human beings living atop Mother Nature’s land that she has so kindly let people inhabit. In this world live many who think their lives are long and endless influencing them to take life for granted. Others, who are obligated to a restrained existence, either by their physical conditions or their mental state, have a gratitude for life influencing them to attempt to push past their confrontations and accomplish achievements. The individuals, who are able to reach their aspirations during their lifetime, are able to experience the satisfactory feeling as illustrated in The Death of the Moth, by Virginia Woolf. In her writing, Woolf opines that the death should be revered revered because of death’s inevitability, which causes
Some of the most disturbing truths are told in silent whispers masked in the noise of living. You aren 't aware that you heard the message until long after it has seeped into you subconscious and taken root in your psyche. This is an art in storytelling, an art so few can recognize, and even fewer can replicate. Such beautiful craftsmanship is Katherine Mansfield 's story of “The Fly,” in which, behind the scenes, a dismal message of grief and guilt and the limits of the human mind are told through two dying men and one dying fly.
Dickinson, Emily. “I heard a fly buzz – when I died.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and writing. Seventh Edition. X.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia. Saddle River. Pearson Education, 2013. 776. Print.
In her essay “The Death of the Moth”, Virginia Woolf encourages us to be inspired by the moth: to make the most of our lives until the very end, but not to fight death unnecessarily and to accept it with pride of having lived a meaningful life. Woolf conveys this message through symbolism, imagery and contrast.
Anne Laetitia Barbauld’s “The Caterpillar” takes on an entirely different tone towards nature. The speaker takes on more of a scientific tone in describing the caterpillar, rather than a philosophical tone as the young boy had in “The Lamb.” She describes its physicality: “Noted the silver line that streaks thy back,/ the azure and the orange that divide thy velvet sides …” (lines 4-6). Barbauld captures an epiphanic moment, not an innocent or tender one. While looking at this caterpillar that has wrapped itself around her finger, she is forced to look at it and admire it and to notice it. The caterpillar makes her “feel and clearly recognize thine individual existence” (line 25). This personal connection saves its life because she now feels
The wasp and the spider have many similarities and differences. Have you ever wanted to know the similarities and differences between them? So come on and take the adventure with me to find the similarities and differences.
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Tell-Tale Heart." Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999. 33-37.
Preminger, Alex and T.V. Brogan eds. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: PUP, 1993.