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Death of a Moth

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Death of a Moth
For Starters it’s easy to say both essays are about moths. This is actually the first time I have read essays about tiny creatures and have come across two famous writers that spend their time of the day observing and actually writing in detail about moths - the death of moths.

Both essays are written by women, both seemingly nature loners and talk about the last few moments of the moths’ lives. Readers find Dillard’s essay slightly more violent death the female moth had, where as we don’t exactly find out what killed the male moth in Woolf’s essay. Both writers are sitting in places where they can see and experience the nature and the elements around them first hand although Woolf is on a farm house where as Dillard, is camping by herself. The parts like “ After a pause.. Fluttered again” and “the body relaxed … struggle was over” in Woolf’s essay and the phrases like “one night … and held”; “ her head jerked.. Pistol fire” in Dillard’s essay shows in detail what the poor moth went through in their last stages. Although readers will strongly believe the moth in Dillard’s essay had more violent horrifying death; but the moth in Woolf’s essay had suffered more.

The tone of the essay is very typical starts very full of life and ends with the death of the moth, she does a great job helping the reader draw a picture of what is around her. Dillard on the other hand is more like a hopper the tone and theme all through the essay keeps changing and jumping from one point to another. For instances, the essay starts off with her talking about her cat and a spider’s web in her bathroom, readers honestly would think she was going to go on about spiders, but from the carcasses left of the spider’s meals rises the link to the female moth whose death we experience.

Woolf’s essay starts with the description of the moth- a male day moth to be precise. Her essay has a beginning a body and ending about a moth with the whole essay revolving around that moth other
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