ance of the situation:One could only watch the extraordinary efforts made by those tiny legs against an oncoming doom which could, had it chosen, have submerged an entire city, not merely a city, but masses of human beings; nothing, I knew, had any chance against death. (428)The lengthier sentences also help to explain the wonder and awe that Woolf expresses towards the moth. The wonder and awe that she expressed was due to the power and inevitability of the death. Woolf was in awe that death is inevitable and that she could not do anything about it. The next stylistic device is personification. By definition personification is to think of or represent as having human qualities or life. Woolf applies this device to the moth by giving the moth gender pronouns like he, him, and his. As Woolf asserts, “One could not help watching him. One was, indeed, conscious of a queer feeling of pity for him” (426). Woolf brings on personal identification by using human words such as marvelous as well: Yet, because he was so small, and so simple a form of the energy that was rolling in at the open window and driving its way through so many narrow and intricate corridors in my own brain and in those of other human beings, there was something marvelous as well as pathetic about him. (427) Woolf represents the moth as having human life or qualities. The moth lived a life of energy and simplicity. Death, though, takes away everything. Death is the theme of the essay. The three stylistic devices explained above all relate to each other and to the theme. The lengthier sentences bring out the change of tone as well as Woolfs’ inspiration toward the moth. The personification represents the moth as having human qualities. When the moth died everything stopped. For instance, there was stillness all around, the plough stopped, horses stood still, and workers stopped as well. The human qualities expressed by the author better explain the li...
