How is the moth presented in the attached extract The death of the moth?

by hirra101 (student)

AS and A Level English

Hirra Naghman

English Lit.

How is the moth presented in the attached extract – ‘The death of the moth’?

The attached extract is about the narrator watching a moth struggle in life before it meets its superior death. The author reflects on their observation and integrates the literal with the metaphorical using allegory. An allegory is a symbolism device where the meaning of a greater concept is conveyed with the help of a more physical object or idea being used as an example. In this case, life’s struggles and death are conveyed using the movement and attributes of a moth.

The extract starts off by discussing what a moth is, what it does and doesn’t do. “Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moth;” meaning moths that fly in the daytime, aren’t really moths since they are known for flying around at night. This already suggests that the moth in this text isn’t the ordinary moth; but something more than what is expected of it.

Blake tells us how it seems that the great, vigorous energy outdoors on that pleasant mid-September morning seems to have “sent the moth fluttering from side to side”; this tells us that the moth is something that echoes the mood in its surroundings in its behaviour, much like a human does mechanically. This starts to introduce the idea that this moth could be a lot like a person. The moth is presented as something that is enticing to watch when Blake writes “One could not help watching him”, yet “the thought of all life might have been had he ...

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Blake tells us how it seems that the great, vigorous energy outdoors on that pleasant mid-September morning seems to have “sent the moth fluttering from side to side”; this tells us that the moth is something that echoes the mood in its surroundings in its behaviour, much like a human does mechanically. This starts to introduce the idea that this moth could be a lot like a person. The moth is presented as something that is enticing to watch when Blake writes “One could not help watching him”, yet “the thought of all life might have been had he been born in any other shape caused on to view his simple activities with a kind of pity.” - The thought that you could be anything in life, but were made in the form of a small insect with wings is disappointing as it limits your abilities to do more in life.

The number of possibilities of pleasure for the narrator seemed so large that morning that to be watching a moth, and a day moth at that, appeared a weird outcome, and its enthusiasm in enjoying its lacking opportunities to the full, pathetic. This indicates that even though the moth is small and can’t do much in life, it enjoys what it is capable of, to the full. “He was little or nothing but life”…

“there was something marvellous as well as pathetic about him. It was as if someone had taken a tiny bead of pure life and decking it as lightly as possible with downs and feathers, had set it dancing and zigzagging to show us the true nature of life. – That no matter how many obstacles or the size of those obstacles may get thrown at us in life, it should motivate you to carry on enjoying it no matter what.

This presents the moth as a commendable character.

“I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure.” – The moth struggling was something that was so unusual that without considering it might not get back up, the narrator waited mechanically for it to right itself. Much like how when a commendable person that enjoys life faces a struggle, everybody thinks that they will manage automatically and seem to be oblivious to the worst, just because the person doesn’t show fear on the surface.

At this point, the moth is helpless after “perhaps a seventh attempt” to right himself.