Death of the Moth: Analysis of Loss and Death
“Death of the Moth” is a famous essay written by Virginia Woolf. It explores the issue of mortality and death. This sample critical essay analyzes the metaphors of death in this work. If you’re looking for a similar original essay, you can order it on College-Writers.com.
Death and Mortality in Death of the Moth
Virginia Woolf’s “Death of the Moth” tells a story of a moth that cannot escape the windowpane. It tries to get free until it dies. The author tells that her first thought is to help the moth, but watching its struggle, she comes to a conclusion that the moth has the same problem as all the living creatures have: it tries to escape death that will inevitably come, sooner or later. The author highlights the circular nature of life and death, where nobody can avoid death. However, death is also the strongest motivational force in the world. Death is the only reason why we value our lives. We struggle for life, and it makes our lives meaningful.
Metaphor for Life
The author observes the moth trying to break through the window and realizes that the moth itself is the best metaphor for life. Even though the moth demonstrates the most simple and meaningless activity, just flying from one corner of the room to another, the author sees the primal form of life, the “form of the energy” that pushes this little moth to seek the way out. The same way, our human brain cannot stay unfocused and still.
The author appreciates life itself, describing that morning as a morning full of “the possibilities of pleasure.” Thoughts about the beauty of life make the author pity the insect that cannot see the difference between complicated matters and cannot catch the beauty of the moment. The moth’s life is so simple that it doesn’t realize what it fights against. Unlike humans, who are aware of their mortality and the inevitability of death, the moth keeps struggling against this force, trying to overcome it.
Energetic Passion
Even though the moth looks like an insignificant creature, the author gets fascinated by its passion. Nobody can help it, but it still struggles for life. On the other hand, the author describes this zeal as pathetic, because the moth cannot do anything but fly around, repeating the same meaningless action over and over again. However, this passion is a metaphor for “the true nature of life.” Outside the window, dozens of people are actively working in the field. They collect their harvests every year, they work hard to be able to live, even though they all will die at the end of this cycle. Thus, their hard work is as meaningless as the moth’s flights.
We fill our lives with various tasks that make us forget about our death. Even though death is always near, waiting to catch us, we pretend not to see it. We deny death, we don’t feel the urgency for filling our lives with truly meaningful moments. We don’t enjoy every moment of life, despite the fact that we don’t have much time. The author assumes that people are afraid of their meaningless lives but don’t understand how to fill the rest of their lives with something valuable.
Meaning of Life
People fill every day of their lives with work that is generally meaningless. As soon as they die, all their achievements will disappear. The author watches people work outside the window and realizes that their work won’t have any lasting impact if these workers will suddenly disappear. All the trees will keep growing without restrictions until the whole field will look completely different, like if it had never seen people at all. The author concludes that we don’t do anything that would have any permanent effect, so our activities don’t have any considerable value.
The author doesn’t see any value in life until the moth starts to die. The moth experiences the same thing that all the living creatures do. The author realizes that, even though we live and know much more about life than any other creature, we have yet to get a grasp on what is death. We are so unaware of death that it stops us from cherishing life and its value. She comes to a conclusion that the only way to value something is to lose it.
We also get threatened by countless situations that can turn out to be deadly for us. However, we don’t realize that these situations are dangerous. For example, we drive cars, so we are always prone to fatal accidents. We know it, and yet we get in the car, forget about seatbelts, and take our children with us. The author says that we forget about our safety because we lack the meaning of life, we don’t value it until the very last moment when we die. Many of us cannot achieve our full potential because it seems like there’s always more time left, but death comes regardless of whether we are aware of it or not.
Forced to Help
As the author watches the moth try to escape death, she feels forced to help this tiny creature. She takes a pencil and reaches out but suddenly gets astonished, seeing that the moth is struggling so much, being absolutely helpless at the same time. She realizes that death and life are equally strong. When life gives this creature a chance to live, death will only give it more threats. The author understands that the moth’s life is in a sense her own life, and she cannot defeat death.
She realizes that “death is stronger than I am,” watching how a pure little creature dies because of its own weakness. The author suggests that the very battle against death is more important than both death and life. The best thing we can do is to die with dignity, and it’s the only value of our lives. She says that we can learn the meaning of life only fighting for it like the moth, overcoming new threats. Even though she initially describes the moth’s efforts as pathetic, now she sees its strength. The moth is trying to escape death, and it’s determined to fight till the end.
The author compares the moth to humans. The moth is capable of enjoying its life in its purest, simple form, while we keep searching for happiness, living our complicated lives. The moth’s final dance in the face of death shows us how short our lives are. The author is trying to tell us that we must appreciate every moment of our lives, understanding that this moment can be the last one.
Connecting Life and Death
“The Death of the Moth” compares life to death, showing us the example of the struggle for life. The little moth that doesn’t know anything but breathing and eating, fights the same fight as all the people do. Virginia Woolf shows us how meaningless our lives are, and how inevitable is death. Even though we are much more complex creatures, we are as weak as the moth, and we try to find the meaning of life, being unable to enjoy it. Every living creature is fighting to win more time, forgetting to enjoy every moment that it has.