Theme Of Death Of The Moth By Virginia Woolf

It is human nature to ponder the idea of death. Throughout history, humans have relied on religion and tales of an afterlife and a greater being to satisfy their curiosity and questions such as what is death? Can one change their fate of how they pass? Is death larger than life? The battle between one’s fate and will is explored through the essay “The Death of The Moth” by Virginia Woolf. The soft flow of her words paint images of benign winds and a sharp breath on a mid-September day; her phrases put her readers at peace, but the sudden struggles she writes brings a rigid edge into the short story leaving the readers curious and hooked. In her essay readers are presented with the opportunity to put their lives into perspective; one simply does not know when they will pass.
Virginia Woolf’s detailed vocabulary and flowing phrases create an image of a new and gentle autumn day. After examining the common knowledge of moths “that fly …show more content…
Readers are placed into a different perspective as Woolf wraps the essay up letting the readers know that the struggles the moth faced against the ugly fate of death was just a metaphor for human life. In the end, it is assumed that death will always win. One can simply not change their fate even as they try to fight against it. She concludes her essay stating “just as life had been strange a few minutes before, so death was now strange”. What started off as a stranger became all knowing to the moth and the moth seemed to cry “o yes, [...] death is stronger than I am”. Virginia Woolf’s powerful and beautiful words leave readers astonished and allows them to look at life in a completely new angle. As stated in “The Death of The Moth”, the timing of when one passes is controlled strictly by fate, therefore it can be concluded that one should live their life doing the things that make them