preview

Similes In The Death Of The Moth By Virginia Woolf

Decent Essays

The Death of The Moth The essay “The Death of The Moth” was published posthumously in 1942, a year after Virginia Woolf lost a battle with depression and mental illness, and at age 59 committed suicide. Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth" shows the audience the power of death through a short narration about everyday, yet very symbolic moth. Woolf uses her own experience of watching a moth die to apply it to a larger theme. Woolf connects a simple moths lifespan to paint a gorgeous picture of “life” and then destroys it right in front of the audience's eyes, to leave a lasting impression of Woolf's perception of life and death. With further analysis and a more in depth look at its message, it is a essay filled with literary devices, …show more content…

The most prominent use of a rhetorical device in her essay is similes. In the essay she describes the moth as hybrids, and says “ "Neither gay like butterflies nor somber like their own species." The similes Woolf uses compares two opposites together and giving us more insight on the moth. Woolf uses simile to help create more visualized and vivid illustrations of scenes to the reader. Woolf also uses parallelism to improve the readability and quality of her writing, and the reader is able to process and follow the flow of the essay better. Personification was used effectively through the whole …show more content…

The diction was clear and understandable to ensure that the audience could understand her message, rather than try and decipher large incoherent words. Woolf also uses many words with negative connotations but takes a neutral attitude to the subject. At the beginning of the essay Woolf's tone is very whimsical and hopeful but as the essay progresses it turns dark and somber. At the beginning Woolf used phrasing such as “ Pleasant morning” and “enormous energy of the world”. Then toward the end of the essay she uses words such as “helplessness” and “failure”. By using this diction she correlates it with the path her ideas take, which lets the reader feel her attitude change.Though Woolf takes a neutral attitude to the subject, she still has a very serious and authorial voice to show the seriousness of the

Get Access