Virginia Woolf and Annie Dillard composed essays on the death of moths, expressing their nuanced
observations and reflections on the destiny of the tiny creature. While both writers developed delicate lines
on physical movements of moths, Dillard utilized significantly more metaphors and personification to make
his essay more dramatic; Moreover, Woolf wrote in a serious and reflective tone arguing death is pathetic
yet inevitable, Dillard viewed the death as a small aspect of life that is interesting to write about.
Woolf composed in a pathetic, serious but compromising tone, saying, “O yes, he seemed to say, death is
stronger than I am”. He acknowledges the moth’s struggling as unbelievable yet still inferior to the power of
death. To demonstrate that, he frequently used juxtapositions of connotations associated with life and death
throughout the work. While approaching the end, where the moth finally dies, the death words more often
appear in his essay, “helplessness”, “stiff”, “death”, etc. The ending made readers ponderous of how we,
humans, should face our death. In contrast, Dillard remained as an objective observer viewing the engaging
drama of burning moth. “That is why I think those hollow shred on the bathroom floor are moths”. Dillard
wrote the essay as if he was acting as a detective on purpose figuring out what the “hollow shreds” are on
the floor. He did the keen observation of burning moths to gain evidence for inductive reasoning. It was like
writing in a diary about an interesting event he successfully discovered in his day. Therefore, the tone was
quite easy and without deep philosophical considerations of death compared with Woolf’s essay.
The physical movements are well described, as Woolf goes, “…but (it) seemed either so stiff or so awkward
that he could only flutter to the bottom of the windowpane”. Woolf used quite a lot of words to directly
describe the movements of the moth, conveying the moth’s action in a realistic way. It also aligns with his
serious tone. It depicted the gradual loss of energy of moth, creating a sense of tragedy. Nonetheless,
Dillard wrote, “like a hollow saint, like a flam-faced virgin gone to god”. He dramatized and the Moth
burning for two hours without burning connecting with elements of Christianity and using personification.
Fact that other creatures like his cat would never touch the candle and the mythical components make the
death more like a saint, a hero, who knows his destiny of death and accept to leave the world with justice
and self-actualization, which appealed to audience of sense of humor and make his “diary” an anecdote with
redemption. Fantasizing moth as a hero, he aimed to find out interesting things in his life, eventually.
-Quick Write by Charles Yang, Co-founder of Youth Torch