Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf, "Death of a Moth"

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was born in London and was largely self-educated. Besides being an essayist, literary critic, short story writer, and novelist, Woolf taught at Morley College in London, and was both a newspaper and book publisher. She was also active in the women's suffrage movement in England. A key Modernist writer, Woolf abandoned traditional literary approaches for an internal one, using a "stream of consciousness" technique which recorded her characters' thoughts and emotions. Her novels include The Voyage Out (1915), Mrs. Dalloway (1925), and her masterpiece To The Lighthouse (1927). She also wrote the collections of essays A Room of One's Own (1929) and Three Guineas (1938), and the collections of stories Kew Gardens (1919) and Monday or Tuesday (1921). After a long battle with mental illness, Woolf took her own life by drowning in Sussex, England. "The Death of the Moth" is taken from The Death of the Moth and Other Essays (1942).

CONTENT

1. Describe the weather the morning of the day the author recounts.
2. What is the moth doing the first time the author sees it?
3. How does the author try to help the moth?
4. What is the moth's last action? How does Woolf react?
5. What does Woolf see out the window? How does the author link the moth with what's going on outside?

STRATEGY AND STYLE

1. The author spends a good bit of time in the first paragraph pointing out that this is just an ordinary moth she's describing, not even a "proper" one at that. What do you make of this description? How would the tone of the piece change if this were the most beautiful, exotic moth she'd ever seen?
2. In the first paragraph the author describes the morning as having "breath." How does this personification fit in with the ideas of life and death throughout the essay? Where else is there personification?
3. Discuss "The Death of the Moth" as a description essay. In what specific places does Woolf make an appeal to the senses? What makes it good description?
4. What are the rooks doing outside? What does the author compare their activities to? What image does this comparison create? How does this image help introduce the essay?

1. What do you think about when you think about death? Did any of these thoughts go through your mind during your reading? Are you thinking of any parts of the reading now?
2. Do you kill bugs or try to let them be? Does the situation matter? Does the type of bug matter? Are you likely to rethink your position in about these things after reading this essay? Explain.

SUGGESTIONS FOR SUSTAINED WRITING

1. Write an essay about the meaning of life and death suggested by Woolf in this essay. Be sure to detail what's going on inside and outside of her room, what happens before and during the moth's death, and how your view of these things fits in with hers.
2. Write a comparison/contrast essay using this piece and Ed Koch's "Death and Justice" as the focal points. How are life and death interrelated in the two works? Is Woolf's view compatible with the idea of the death penalty? What does each say about the sanctity of life?

FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Do some research into the circumstances surrounding Woolf's death. Some of the links below will get you started. What was going on in the world at the time of her death? How was her mental health? How did she die? What was the reaction to her death? How did your research deepen your understanding of the ideas of life and death she presents in this essay?

WEB CONNECTION

Here is a multimedia page about Virginia Woolf and British Gardens. You can click around and take a cyber-tour of the London and the English countryside at several different sites. These pages bring Woolf's work to life in beautiful and fun ways.

LINKS

Biographical

This is the homepage of the searchable Virginia Woolf Web. Try typing in "death" and "moth" and see what you come up with.

This site contains info on Woolf and Hogarth House. You'll find biographical and critical information there, and it's good place to check if you're doing research about Woolf, or would just like more background.

"I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on any longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness to you but cannot go on and spoil your life."

That is Woolf's suicide note. For more, here's an Associated Press story about Woolf's sad death. (Free registration required.)

Bibliographical

Here is Monday or Tuesday in etext. Why don't you pick a poem, study it, and see how you can compare it to her prose writing style? Did you know that Woolf also wrote poetry?

This page has links to Night and Day in downloadable formats, and this page has links to The Voyage Out in downloadable formats. Pick one and download it. Do you like reading electronic texts? What are the drawbacks of etexts? What advantages do they have over plain old paper?

Cultural

This is a review of an exhibition about Woolf at the New York Public Library in 1993. The review will give you a glimpse into Woolf's personal history, as it describes, letters, manuscripts, paintings, and photographs, among other things. (Free registration required.)

Would you like to put Woolf's work into historical context? Here is a searchable Modernism timeline that will be a great help and is even fun to use.

This is a good general Bloomsbury page. "Bloomsbury" is a district in London and the name given to a group of Woolf's acquaintance who met to discuss (and argue about) art and politics and other things.