The Death Of A Moth Analysis

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When it comes to living life, there is often that though inside one’s mind about the end of life, about death. In Virginia Woolf's “The Death of the Moth,” she explores the life and death continuum while drawing her readers into her own realizations of them using a moth as a tangible subject. Woolf utilizes her levels of language to manipulate her audience to take on the role of what her tone is suggesting and leads them to her ultimate conclusion through sympathetic pathos, juxtaposed diction, bookending structure, and her overall appeal to the audience’s humanity. Woolf draws the reader in immediately in the first paragraph, incorporating imagery and her own personal unique definition of a moth, “They are hybrid creatures, neither gay like butterflies nor sombre like their own species” (par. 1 Woolf). The imagery allows the reader to recall images of moments that are similar or exact to that of the description. It lures the reader in with something simple and familiar to further expand and lead to something with more complexity. The imagery continues on to describe her observation of the moth flittering around, placing her readers directly into the…show more content…
5 Woolf). Not only is the moth a tangible subject of life in general but also specific to Woolf’s own. As someone who was dealing with bipolar disorder, the moth exemplified her own personal struggles in life. As the moth’s “body relaxed and instantly grew stiff. The struggle was over” (par. 5 Woolf) and submits to death. The full acceptance of death may have been a justification for Woolf’s own suicide, expressing that the individual cannot always keep fighting the battle against evil. Her own personal life may have also been implied when she states that “there was nobody to care or to know” (par. 5 Woolf), suggest that she herself did not have anybody as

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