Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth" Essay

Total Length: 1777 words ( 6 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 0

Page 1 of 6

Mr. Forster, it seems, has a strong impulse to belong to both camps at once. He has many of the instincts and aptitudes of the pure artist (to adopt the old classification) -- an exquisite prose style, an acute sense of comedy, a power of creating characters in a few strokes which live in an atmosphere of their own; but he is at the same time highly conscious of a message. Behind the rainbow of wit and sensibility there is a vision which he is determined that we shall see. But his vision is of a peculiar kind and his message of an elusive nature." This seems to be a hint as to Woolf's own approach. Certainly a work like "The Death of the Moth" exhibits an "exquisite prose style" and even has its own moment of forlorn comedy, perhaps, in its closing line: but behind all of Woolf's observation is a "vision" with a "message of an elusive nature." It is the elusiveness of Woolf's message, perhaps, that qualifies her as a pure artist: in some sense, nothing more is intended by her moth than the smallest possible instance of life and death. But the fact that life and death are the largest possible subject indicates that Woolf does intend some larger meaning. The crucial thing about her style in this book is to see how it is built of minute and detailed observations......

Need Help Writing Your Essay?