The Death of the Moth

Much of the essay’s power is grounded in Virginia Woolf’s ability to focus on the miniature and portray it with tragic pathos. Woolf frequently shifts her tone, but remains in a state of utter fascination—freely exploring the scene before her and magnifying the day moth so dramatically that its life expands into commentary on the human condition. She opens with a formal tone as if she were a natural scientist seeking to define the day moth, but quickly shifts into poetic metaphor. She decides that day moths are “hybrid” because they are neither happy “like butterflies” nor “somber” like night moths (Paragraph 1). With this sentiment alone, Woolf frames the moth as something to be pitied, something not naturally enticing the way other creatures are; it lacks distinctive qualities associated with beauty or pleasure. It is a forgettable creature “content with life”—this sentiment setting the emotional tone for the rest of the essay (Paragraph 1).

Woolf addresses the world around her from a grand scope. She frames the scene within her window by extending from herself and then observing what is nearest to her: the moth.