Class Notes for “The Fly” by Katherine

MansfieldExamining the story from an analytical perspective.

Examining the Story"The Fly" is a fine example of how an apparently

minor incident can illuminate a character's fundamental personality.

The story is a character sketch about a man, significantly known only as "the boss." He is visited by an old friend and associate, Mr. Woodifield, who refers to their respective sons, both of whom were killed six years earlier and World War I.

Later, in coping with memories of his son, the boss tortures a fly to death, revealing his basic personality and confirming earlier hints that he is more complex than he appears.

Themes in the Story

1) A person's actions reveal aspects of that person's character.2) People who feel unbearable emotions may conceal them from themselves and others.

Paradox in the Story

1) People act as if they live in a universe that is comprehensible and predictable, whereas, in reality, the universe may be irrational and unpredictable.

2) The most powerful human being is unable to control many aspects of his or her own life, such as death.

SymbolismWoodifield: • Woodifield's major function is to evoke the boss's

memories of his son. • Woodifield contrasts with the boss in a lack of

control Woodifield exercises over his life, and Woodifield's behaviour elicits the boss's response to weakness in others.

• Woodifield also contrasts with the boss in the respective attitudes toward the death of their sons.

• Woodifield accepts the death and continues to appreciate all the good in life. The quality of the boss's life died with his son, who the boss used as an extension of himself.

Symbolism (cont.)The photo of the boss's son: The difference between the son's photograph and the

boss's memory of his son reveals the difference between reality (the photo) and illusion (the boss's memories).

The "grave-looking" photo of a "cold, even stern looking" youth depicts the real son as a young adult, possibly unhappy, and possibly a victim of his father's need to control everything and everyone connected with his own life.

In order to be sure that his son became strong, the boss may have given him overwhelming challenges just as he did with the fly.

The boss cannot ignore the true nature of either his son or himself. He lives with illusions of both that he has created to satisfy his own needs.

Symbolism (cont.)The Fly: The fly symbolizes the boss's own life-experience in that,

like the fly, the boss is subject to forces beyond his control. (He had no power to control his son's death.)

The fly also symbolizes the boss's son in that the boss challenges both to be successful, enjoys their successes, and then finds that their abilities cannot prevent them from being killed by forces beyond their control. The boss challenges both to be as strong as they can because the boss's fear of his own inner weakness make him intolerant of weakness in anyone associated with him. The boss's torture of the fly is a re-creation of his son's life and death. The fly's death confirms what his son's death taught him about life, and the boss is so distressed and frightened by this knowledge that he does not permit himself to remember it or anything connected with it.

Word choice in the storyEvery word in this story, sounding natural

and casual in its place, proves to have far-reaching significance. ◦Mr. Woodifield's thought that "We cling to our last

pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves," provides one of the themes

◦The description of the photograph of the boss's son introduces the question of his personality;

◦ Mr. Woodifield's memory lapse foreshadows the boss's later, related, memory lapse.

The Shadow-self Jung defines the Shadow as "a living part of the

personality" that "personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly."

Just as a bully conceals a Shadow who is a coward, a boss conceals a Shadow who is a wimp. Thus, the boss in "The Fly" always feels compelled to overcompensate for his fear of his week Shadow-self by taking total control of himself and others.

His fear of his own weakness also makes him intolerant of weakness in anyone or anything else, including Mr. Woodifield, his son, and the fly.

The boss and weaknessThe boss handles weakness in others by giving

them challenges they need strength to master. He insists that Mr. Woodifield drink straight whiskey, and he challenges the fly to overcome inkblots.

Unfortunately, the boss's fear of weakness is so strong that challenges he creates for others may be too great for them. Recognizing that the fly's efforts have become timid and weak, he nevertheless is compelled to give it the challenge that kills it. Thus, his behaviour contains both sadistic and tragic qualities.

The epiphany in the storyThe power of the story resides in what the boss's

treatment of the fly and his reaction to its death reveal about him and his son. James Joyce would call this incident and epiphany, a sudden moment of illumination that reveals the boss's true character and destroys the veil of illusion that has concealed the private man beneath the public image. Thus, as the fly copes with its challenges, the boss enjoys its successes with the same pleasure that he watched those of his son, and when he dies, his "grinding feeling of wretchedness" frightens him into disconnecting his memory of both the emotion and all that produced it.

Epiphany (cont.)The scene in which the boss tortures the fly to death is an epiphany in that it is an insignificant event that suddenly reveals the boss's essential nature. He has lived his life according to the principle that those who are strong enough can overcome any adversity, even the possibility of death. His torture of the fly is an experiment which, on a symbolic level, re-creates his son's life and death under circumstances over which the boss has complete control. The fly's death, like the death of the boss's son, confirms the faulty nature of the boss's guiding principles. Consequently, the boss is first distressed, and then his fright causes him to "forget" the incident.

The boss does not usually permit himself to think about his son's death because it destroys the principle that governs his own life, namely, that those who are strong enough can overcome any adversity, even the possibility of death. His torture of the fly is an experiment which, on a symbolic level, re-creates his son's life and death of your circumstances over which he has complete control. When the fly’s death confirms the destruction of the principle that is crucial to his own life, the boss finds that, once again, both this knowledge and his emotional response to it are so frightening that he must immediately forget them.

Psychological RealismMansfield creates a limited but effective form of

psychological realism with a narrative perspective that uses a third-person narrator who makes the boss the center of consciousness.

This technique enables the reader to enter the boss's mind and gain access to whatever thoughts and feelings he permits himself without forcing the author to sacrifice the object objective the descriptions that the boss would not use.

How the characters handle death:Mr. Woodifield mourns the loss of his son

and proceeds to live as meaningful a life as his poor health will permit.

In contrast, once the boss's son dies, the boss lives on only as a mechanical being. Health, financial success, and remaining family mean nothing to him. His son was an extension of himself, and that death killed his own interest in life.

Why doesn’t the boss have a proper name?

The constant use of the boss's title, rather than his name, reveals who the boss is and how he functions in interpersonal relationships.

The need always to be "boss" reveals his fear of weakness in himself and his inability to tolerate it in others.

The boss's behaviour, consistent with his title, reflects his overwhelming need to control himself and others, including his response to Woodifield in the opening scene, the nature of his thoughts about his son and his son's death, and his treatment of the fly and the closing scene.

Why does the boss keep the photo of his son?

The boss may keep this photo on his desk, even if he doesn't like it, because it makes a good public impression. The boss can appear to be proud to have had a son who gave his life for his country and, thus, died a heroic death. This is consistent with the boss's interest in redecorating his office and his absolute control over his emotions in public. Maintaining appearances is very likely second only to maintaining control, and, in fact, is a way of exercising control.

The photograph of the boy also reminds the boss that his own life no longer has a purpose, since his soul interest was to pass on his business to his son, and his son is dead.

Why doesn’t the boss use his son’s name?Calling his son "the boy" creates an emotional

distance from him, almost as if he is not the boss's son.

Distance relieves the pain. Memories of his son call forth memories of his

death. His son's death reminds him that, just as he had no control over his son's death, he will have no control over his own death, and with him, control is the most important factor in life.

Why hasn't the boss seen his son's grave?The boss has the financial ability but

not the motivation to see the grave. His decision reflects a form of denial, his inability to deal with the reality of his son's death and the effect of that loss on his life. His son's death is a reminder of his inability to control mortality, including his own.

Why can't the boss cry? With time, the boss has been able to bury his

emotions in an area of his psyche where he can no longer feel them. However, although he cannot summon them, they still exist, and they erupt when the fly dies.

Part of anyone's reaction to anything is a response to the questions: "How does this affect my life?” and “ What will happen to me?" The boss's tears reflected his response to these questions.

The death of his son, who was an extension of himself, was an excruciatingly personal loss. That death also devastated the principle by which the boss lived, that strength overcomes all adversity.

Why does the boss torture the fly to death?

The experience provides an acceptable outlet for great anger and frustration: anger at his son's death and, consequently, the loss of his own dreams, and frustration at his own inability to control what was most important to him in his life (his son's life). His method of killing the fly enables him to examine the process of life and death under circumstances that he controls.

Why does the boss torture the fly to death? (cont.)

The boss admires the fly's heroic efforts and is not consciously aware that his challenges are torturing it to death. However, when it dies, he feels terrible because he subconsciously realizes that his treatment of the fly has reproduced the pattern of his son's life and death and of his own, as well.

The boss has constructed his life on the principle that those who are strong enough can overcome any adversity, even death. The fly's death reinforces the message of his son's death, that no one can control important aspects of life.