Virginia Woolf And Annie Dillard: Symbolism Of A Moth

545 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Virginia woolf woman and fiction

Atypical things and creatures have been used in the form of symbolism for different stories and poems, and in the case of Virginia Woolf and Annie Dillard, it has been the paltry creature of the moth to represent serious, significant subjects. Virginia Woolf uses a moth as a symbol for life, and as the moth is confined inside the windowpane, he struggles to live and eventually dies. This symbolizes the struggle to circumvent death, as life is treasurable. In the case of Annie Dillard, the moth is attracted to the candle flame, and ends up being burnt and shriveled by the flame. However, while the moth is being scorched, the flame burns brighter, denoting that everyone does have purpose after death, but this story also has religious meaning. Both authors, Annie Dillard and Virginia Woolf, use the same creature to signify different meanings and storylines.
Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of a Moth” is a …show more content…

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. Annie Dillard’s “The Death of a Moth” is about Dillard’s depiction of a moth burning in the candle flame. Her style is more personal, as she describes different situations in her life, beginning with the insects in her

Show More
Related

  • Cathedral By John Dillard Analysis

    1025 Words  | 3 Pages

    The effect of Dillard calling the moth a “she” instead of “it” shows that it’s a person who she deeply regrets killing off. Since Dillard killed off the moth she finished her earthy work on a writing scale.

    Read More

  • How Does Poe Use Loss In The Raven

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    The actor Keanu Reeves once commented, “Grief changes shape, but it never ends.” Perhaps, nowhere else is this idea of never-ending grief more prevalent than in dark romanticist Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.” The popular eighteenth century poem follows the despondent narrator’s encounter with the Raven, the ominous bird later forces him to realize his never-ending isolation and sorrow due to the loss of his love, Lenore. In his poem, through the use of allusions and the literary devices of repetition and comparison in stanza 17, Poe explores the perpetual effects of loss.

    Read More

  • Lost Love in The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe tells the story of a bereaved man who is grieving for his lost love in the poem, “The Raven.” During a dark and gloomy night, the man hears a knock at his door. Hoping that it is Lenore, his dead lover, coming back to him, he goes to open the door. Unfortunately, he is only met with emptiness and disappointment. Shortly after, a raven flies into the room through the window and lands on the bust of Pallas. The man begins to converse with this dark and mysterious bird. In response to everything the man says, the raven repeats one dreadful word: “Nevermore.” The symbolism of the raven being connected to death, and the man’s interaction with the dark bird reveals to readers that he is going through the stages of dying. Subsequently, the repetition of the bird’s one worded reply makes it known that the man will never see Lenore again because there is no afterlife.

    Read More

  • I Never Saw Another Butterfly Vs Night Essay

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the excerpt of Night, it states, “Dozens of starving men fought each other to the death for a few crumbs.” (Wiesel 105) This describes fear because to imagine that food is more important than one's’ life is scary to think about. People wanting to kill each other just to eat something is hard to think about. In the poem, “I Never Saw ANother Butterfly” it states “Butterflies don’t live in here, In the ghetto”(Friedman 16-17) This is an example of fear because this quote gives a sense of eeriness to the setting and it describes when he realizes that things will never be the same again. It also symbolizes he won’t just never see another butterfly but his home, family, and life will never be the same ever again. With death being inevitable not only would you be scared you would also be

    Read More

  • Analysis of What Are Years? by Marianne Moore

    261 Words  | 1 Pages

    The entire poem is based on powerful metaphors used to discuss the emotions and feelings through each of the stages. For example, she states “The very bird/grown taller as he sings, steels/ his form straight up. Though he is captive (20-22).” These lines demonstrate the stage of adulthood and the daily challenges that a person is faced with. The allusions in the poem enrich the meaning of the poem and force the reader to become more familiar with all of the meaning hidden behind the words. For example, she uses words such as innocence, imprisonment and captive to capture the feelings experienced in each of the stages.

    Read More

  • Water Symbolism In The Gangster We Are All Looking For

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    While staying at Mel’s home, the adolescent female narrator personifies the butterfly paperweight. The life cycle begins with the narrator “hearing” the butterfly sounds, and believing the butterfly is alive. The butterfly mirrors the narrator’s feelings of alienation and immobility amongst her ‘new family’ in America. She is convinced the butterfly is alive, although trapped inside thick glass (le 25). The thick glass mirrors the image of clear, still water. To the adolescent girl, the thick glass doesn’t stop the sounds of the butterfly from coming through; however, her father counteracts this with the idea of death, “…can’t do much for a dead butterfly” (le 31). In order to free the butterfly, the narrator throws the disk at a cabinet of glass animals, shattering the paperweight, as well as the glass animals. The shattering of the glass connects to the shattering of her being, and her experience in fragility. The idea of bringing the butterfly back to life was useless, as the motionless butterfly laid there “like someone expert at holding his breath or playing dead” (le 34). This sense of rebirth becomes ironic as the butterfly did not come back to life as either being reborn or as the manifestation of a ghostly spirit; instead its cyclic existence permeates through the narrator creating a transformative

    Read More

  • The Masque Of The House Of Usher Short Story Analysis

    1304 Words  | 3 Pages

    For a writer, stylistic devices are key to impacting a reader through one’s writing and conveying a theme. For example, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates use of these stylistic techniques in his short stories “The Masque of the Red Death” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.” The former story is about a party held by a wealthy prince hiding from a fatal disease, known as the Red Death. However, a personified Red Death kills all of the partygoers. “The Fall of the House of Usher” is about a man who visits his mentally ill childhood companion, Roderick Usher. At the climax of the story, Roderick’s twin sister, Madeline, murders him after he buries her alive. Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories employ the stylistic decisions of symbolism, dream-like imagery, and tone to affect the reader by furthering understanding of the theme and setting and evoking emotion in readers.

    Read More

  • Literary Legends: Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe primarily authored stories dealing with Gothic literature; the stories were often quite dreary. Poe possessed a very sorrowful view of the world and he expressed this throughout his literary works. His goal was to leave an impression with every detail that he included in his stories. Although Poe’s stories seem very wretched and lackluster they all convey a certain idea. A trademark of Poe’s is his use of very long complex sentences. For instance, in his work The Fall of the House of Usher, Poe tried to ensure that every detail was as relevant as possible by integrating a wide variety of emotion. In the third paragraph, of page two hundred ninety-seven, Poe wrote, “Feeble gleams of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects around…” This sentence illustrates the descriptiveness and complexity that Edgar Allan Poe’s works consisted of. The tormented cognizance of Poe led him to use a very gloomy diction throughout his writing. Edgar Allan Poe’s use of symbols and the way he conveyed his writing expr...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Death Of A Moth By Annie Dillard

    1353 Words  | 3 Pages

    Early in the essay, she describes herself living alone with her two cats, and she, somehow, makes joke with them although it was not so sure how often she did that in a day. There we can see that she is solitary, yet has some sense of humor lies in herself. Revealing her living environment, that would signal the reader about the upcoming adventure of her with the moths. Some may question why Dillard chose Moths instead of other interesting bugs like a caterpillar or flies to relate to human life. Plus, she does not only explain how the moths dies, but also provides a vivid detail of them dying so that the reader to

    Read More

  • Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf Analysis

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... about things and develop a critical thinking, such as in the alienating subject as well as accepting a black person into the white society in the 1960’s.

    Read More

  • Helena Maria Viramontes’ The Moths

    1672 Words  | 4 Pages

    her grandmother) and grief, Viramontes successfully paints an endearing tale of change. “The Moths” emphasizes the narrator’s oppression by her

    Read More

  • Analysis of Edgar Allan Poe´s Literature

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe has a unique writing style that uses several different elements of literary structure. He uses intrigue vocabulary, repetition, and imagery to better capture the reader’s attention and place them in the story. Edgar Allan Poe’s style is dark, and his is mysterious style of writing appeals to emotion and drama. What might be Poe’s greatest fictitious stories are gothic tend to have the same recurring theme of either death, lost love, or both. His choice of word draws the reader in to engage them to understand the author’s message more clearly. Authors who have a vague short lexicon tend to not engage the reader as much.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In Edgar Allan Poe's Poem, The Raven

    632 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem “The Raven” Edgar Allan Poe wrote about grief, sadness, and depression. He is writing about a young girl named Lenore. She is depicted as pure, beautiful, and the very thing that the main character lives for, his beloved Lenore. When he loses her, he is sent into a spiral of depression. This leads him to believe that a black raven pecking at his door was sent by Lenore. Through out the poem “The Raven” Poe uses many things to illustrate the theme darkness, such as the words he so carefully uses, the symbols that are chosen, and the description of everything.

    Read More

  • Analysis of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe?s ?The Raven? is a dark reflection on lost love, death, and loss of hope. The poem examines the emotions of a young man who has lost his lover to death and who tries unsuccessfully to distract himself from his sadness through books. Books, however, prove to be of little help, as his night becomes a nightmare and his solitude is shattered by a single visitor, the raven. Through this poem, Poe uses symbolism, imagery and tone, as well as a variety of poetic elements to enforce his theme of sadness and death of the one he loves.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Dickinson’s I heard a Fly buzz - when I died

    1316 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fly can also be seen as an interruption in the narrator's process of dying. The fly can be heard buzzing above the "Stillness in the Room." The fly also comes between the speaker and the light in the last stanza of the poem, which is another disturbance in the speaker's dying process. The fly can also be seen in an ironic light. The speaker, like all of us, is expecting death to be an important, grandiose experience in our lives. Her own death, however, is interrupted by something as insignificant as a fly. The insignificant quality of the fly could represent the commonplace nature of death and the relative irrelevance of the death of one person. The fly is unimportant, an...

    Read More

More about Virginia Woolf And Annie Dillard: Symbolism Of A Moth

Open Document