Reflection to "The Death of a Moth"
Number 4
A small little creature fluttering about a window pane does not have much in common with a living human being. But, Virginia Woolf observes this moth and discovers that she is not too different in the moths aspect to life. Although she starts off completely against the pitiful animal by the middle of her essay she unravels the similarities of their simple lives. At the center of this essay, the heart and soul of Woolf is exposed. The reader learns of her minute yet largely important connects between the moths life and hers. Woolf describes the moth as, "a form of the energy that was rolling in at the open window and driving its way through so many narrow and intricate corridors in my own brain", this shows that she developed a connection between herself and the animal that exceeded the dominating human role and took a emotional connection to it. This is the first point in the essay where she has positive feed back to give her little friend and the epiphany that he is not too different from herself. "Again, the thought of all that life might have been had he been born in any other shape caused one to view his simple activities with a kind of pity."(paragraph 3). As the reader glances over this sentence a hidden feeling of Virginia Woolf's is discovered. She shows how she is alike the moth and is a human being that has had a rough patch and is now a creature worthy of being pitied. It is the central idea of this essay to show a connection between the writer and her subject and to show how similar the two are even though they lead separate lives. In paragraph three the true meaning to this essay is relieved. When an outsider looks upon a small, frail and fallen creature they take pity for it but watching it fight is marvelous. But humans are not the only ones who have this opportunity when people a constantly subjected to this frail feeling at the hands of others. Virginia Woolf is no different and in the middle of her essay exposes her same connection to this small moth.
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