In Katherine Mansfield's "The Fly", an old man named Woodifield visits his former boss in his office. Woodifield, who had suffered a stroke, converses with his former boss. The boss offers him whisky, and they drink together. After drinking, Woodifield mentions that he visited the cemetery where the boss's boy was buried. After Woodifield leaves, the boss is overcome with emotion, and is about to weep. He looks at an old, framed photograph of his boy -- who presumably was a soldier and killed in a war -- and reminisces about the time that the boy had spent in the office. During this time, the boss had prepared him to take his place. At the end of the story, the boss notices a fly who struggled out of an inkpot, cleaning his wings. The boss drowns him in ink, and disposes of the fly.
Mansfield's underlying message in the story was that everyone -- including insects -- is doomed to die -- that everyone has a fatal weakness. She illustrates this fact by introducing the ex-employee, Woodifield, who suffered from a stroke. Woodifield, in turn, envious and resentful of his former boss, broaches the topic of the burial site of his boy. A chain of events ensues. The boss is on the verge of weeping, as he reminisces about the time he had spent with his only boy, and the fact that six years passed by so quickly. The former boss, in turn, drowns a fly with ink. In her short story, Mansfield shows that life is futile, and that people are petty. Mansfield conjures up the ghost of the boy in the boss's mind, and she also shows how futile life is for both a fly, an old man who suffered a stroke, a boss, and lastly, a soldier in a grave.
I believe that Mansfield's commentary about life and death is somewhat inaccurate. Real life, as the story suggests, is short and filled with suffering, regret, pettiness, and resentment. However, I also believe that her outlook is somewhat pessimistic. The figurative usage of the fly to illustrate how larger forces (out of our control) render our lives futile and petty is inaccurate. I believe that we are not all subject to being drowned and punished by an angry superior (maybe God?) -- and that life has meaning. I firmly believe that we choose to fulfill our own destinies. Granted, things may happen along the way that are out of our control, but people are not analogous to flies. Our struggles are more heroic, and death on a blotting-paper for no reason is not as trivial as a fly's death. If the boy died on the battlefield, that was no triviality, either. Although the boss forgets that he was nearly weeping about the loss of his only child, his life still matters.
Mansfield seems to make another point, as well -- about war. I agree with her that war itself is pointless, as pointless as a fly's monumental struggle to stay alive. However, a soldier and a son lay buried in a cemetery. A life has been "squashed" out and drowned -- and no one perhaps even knows the reason, or any of the details about the boy's struggles. Moreover, they may not care, which adds an element of despair for humanity to the short story. However, although the masses may not place a high premium on the dignity of life, individuals still have choices -- and the choice to live nobly is sacrosanct. Ultimately, everyone, including the smallest creatures, play their respective roles, a fact which does not diminish their significance overall. The great scheme of things is larger than any one individual, but the great scheme of things also courses through the "least important" creatures and scenarios. In other words, life has more meaning than Mansfield's story conveys.
Works Cited
Mansfield, Katherine. (1922). "The Fly."
