.Discuss “The Fly” as a modern short story :
Modern
short story has grown nearer to the lyric and close to the psychological
mood-poem. Katherine Mansfield’s short “The Fly” is a case in point. It has the
minimum of story in its shaping. It radically differs from the conventional
short story in its mechanics of presentation. In it the treatment is not clear
and logical enough. It offers a sympathetic insight into human soul in a moment
of shock relying on atmosphere and suggestion. It is kin to the “stream of consciousness method”
of fiction.
Here
Katherine Mansfield concentrates on the moment in which past and present strive
in revealing tension. A business man receives in his gorgeous office chamber
his one time colleague Mr. Woodifield who though younger than Boss has now
retired from the service and become “a frail old figure in the muffler.” The
Boss who is still going strong pities Mr. Woodifield and serves him wine. Mr.
Woodifield in course of conversation casually refers to the visits of his
daughters to Belgium
where they had come across the grave of his son, killed in the battle, six
years before. After Woodifield’s departure from his office he finds a fly in
his broad inkpot, takes it out and places it on a piece of blotting paper, lets
drop on it blots of ink from his pen repeatedly to watch its successive
attempts to cleanse itself and come back life until dies into the process. He
is seized by “such a grinding feeling of wretchedness that he fells positively
frightened. He finds himself unable to recall what he has been thinking of. The
murmurs tension inside the individual so characteristics of much modern writing
and reflecting so truly much modern experience is intensely present in “The
Fly”.
The
fly episode is surcharged with immense symbolic suggestion. Until the fly dies
the Boss looks at the little creature with wonders and admiration. He fully
appreciates the fly’s courage. The fly shows how to tackle the odds in life.
One should not the overawed by danger and surrender to it passively. No one in
this world is ready to part with life which is very dear without offering any
resistance. The little creature in the process of fight dies a valiant death.
The Boss becomes the instrument in bringing about the death of the fly. He
becomes to the fly the veritable agent of Fate. The fly symbolizes the tragic
helplessness of man in struggle against all powerful Fate. The role of the Boss
in respect of the death of the fly in not much different from the role of the
all powerful fate which had snatched away his son.
Thus
Mansfield’s
technique in the short story is to describe something while really indicating
another. When the story begins the Boss appears to be very comfortable and
confident-looking. But as the story proceeds the tragic aspects of life
underneath his self-complacence comes to light.
In fact he is much-more pitiable in his private life than Woodifield
whom he pities. This is an annoy. The earlier part of the story it re-read in
the light of the fly-episode will appear more meaningful and suggestive.
Thus
apparently Woodifield’s visit to the office of Boss and the fly episode which
may seen irrelevant to the central theme, namely, the revelation of the Boss’s
bereaved heart are very much indispensable for the theme. The things in the
piece are organically connected together. The story leaves behind the
impression of an artistically delineated picture of the inner world of the
boss. The story has the brevity of expression, acute characterization, inter
connected episodes and the singleness of the situation.
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