death of the moth

In Virginia Woolf’s Death of the Moth, she encounters a moth who is stuck on the inside wishing to be freed to the outside where it can go and do what it wishes. She writes this story because she relates to the moth, because they are both fighting a losing, unwinnable battle against death. She realizes that death will always win and leads to hopelessness and depression, which after reading the introduction, I realize she was suffering from. Even when she tries to help it, she realizes that it would be a hopeless endeavor because death is the only thing guaranteed in life and she realizes it. She knows it is true, no matter what animal we are so she doesn’t get help for her depression and she doesn’t help the poor, dying moth. What stands out to me though is that I can specifically recall a time when I did the exact same thing, except it was a normal fly instead of a moth. I can remember watching it and feeling nothing but pity for it as it tries to fly to freedom before the poor creature’s untimely death. I had completely different thoughts though. I was looking at the power of death and beauty of life and how fragile it is, I just felt bad that this bug wouldn’t be able to live out its life the way it would want, but instead in a house where it would live the rest of its life. So while we both had similar events, she notices the depressing side where there is no hope while I simply feel pity for an undeserving fly’s death.