The Fly - Katherine Mansfield

• The Fly - Katherine Mansfield 


  Main themes - Death, grief, survival, war, passage of time, inevitability of death
• “it was not new. it had been there for over six years.”


  repression, the loss of his son isn’t new for him just lying in wait
• “time, he had declared then, he had told everybody, could make no difference.”


  no matter how much time has gone by, he can’t bring back his son nor accept his grief instead decides to live with it
• “that was the way to tackle things; that was the right spirit. never say die; it was only a question of…”


  the flys resilience is one of a soldiers, the harmful ‘keep calm and carry on’ attitude forced upon soldiers shown in the bosses repression and attitude, never fear death always keep battling on
• “the boss decided that this time should be the last,”


  controlling the outcome of the flys death assuming that he will fight back against this last ink blot due to the resilient attitude the fly keeps showing, metaphor for soldiers
• “grinding feeling of wretchedness - he felt positively frightened.”


  doesn’t understand this emotion due to not having felt it before, he’s so lost in repression that he feels genuine fear at any emotion other than numbness, fears how easily death can occur along with his/humans capability of such a thing
• mr woodifield as a character - name suggests no use, decaying. is a metaphor for acceptance, the acceptance of his sons death contrasts with the boss’ own defiance, “on his last legs” yet a source of life for the boss
• the boss as a character - the embodiment of true repression, resembles a sort of war sergeant when killing the fly, the ‘keep calm and carry on‘ attitude, sees himself full of life in comparison to mr woodifield physically yet not mentally, fears the question of mortality
• the fly - meant to represent both the boss’ son and young soldiers in the war, wants to fight for life yet keeps getting battered down by a larger power, unfair advantage