What does The Fly represent in The Fly By Katherine Mansfield?
The fly in the story “The Fly” symbolizes helplessness of man before fate. Man may try hard to escape his death, but he is not given a chance to escape. Just like the fly, man tries hard and gets out of the grip of death for the time being, but fate again captures him.
What do you think The Fly represents?
The titular fly, struggling for survival before succumbing to death at the boss’s hand, is a symbol that offers multiple interpretations. The fly’s victimization—the boss renders it helpless by repeatedly submerging the fly in ink on his blotting paper—suggests the sadism and brutality of warfare.
What is the central theme of the story The Fly?
The main theme of “The Fly” is death. Perhaps the darkest of Katherine Mansfield’s works, “The Fly” is an existential study of the effects of senseless death upon others and their loss of will. On the boss’s desk sits a photograph of his son, a youth taken from his father by World War I.
What is the significance of The Fly’s death at the end of the story?
The death of the fly that the boss perpetrates is therefore a symbol of how death conquers all. As the boss, god-like, waits for the fly to survive one ink drop before adding another until finally it is vanquished and dies, the tragedy of human life is acted out for the reader.
What is the significance of the incident with the fly or the fly episode that occurs in Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Fly?
The fly-episode underscores the fact that the defences created by the Boss to guard against invading sorrow are fragile. Grief becomes a disruptive agent that brooks no mental palisade to stand against it. The feeling of wretchedness transforming into fear triggers a deliberate amnesia.
Who does the fly represent in the fly?
The fly represents the boss, or more specifically the boss’s emotional life, and the ink represents his grief. When at first he heard of his son’s death, he was overwhelmed. It was as if he was drowning in grief, just as the fly was drowning in the inkpot.
What is the significance of the incident with The Fly or The Fly episode that occurs in Katherine Mansfield’s short story The Fly?
What is the climax of the story The Fly?
Climax. Mr. Woodifield visits his friend on his newly renovated office. I would say that the climax of this story is when the boss breaks down and asks Macey for thirty minutes alone.
What is the plot of the story The Fly?
The story focuses on a man known only as ‘the Boss’. The other two characters are the Boss’s secretary and Mr. Woodfield, an old friend. The fly in the story acts as a symbol through which the boss can enact revenge for and forget his son’s death in World War I.
Who does The Fly represent in The Fly?
How important was the role of the fly in the story?
How has the story the fly gained a universal significance?
The title of the story has much significance, no doubt indirectly, in the revelation of the psychology, rather the hero’s psychology, which forms the core of the tragedy of the story. The story actually reveals the sorrow of a man, the boss, who is strong, prosperous, with a fine taste for the art of a decent living.